TROPICAL  AFRICA 


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the  Internet  Archive 

in  2015 

https://archive.org/details/tropicalafricaOOdrum_0 


TROPICAL  AFRICA 


BY 


HENRY  DRUMMOND 


LL.D.,  F.R.S.E.,  F.G.S. 


AUTHORISED  EDITION 
WITH  SIX  MAPS,  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS 


i^eto  gork: 
SCRIBNER  AND  WELFORD 


MDCCCLXXXVIII. 


PREFACE 


It  is  the  genial  tax  of  literature  upon  Travel 
that  those  who  have  explored  the  regions  of 
the  uncivilised  should  open  their  bag  of  wonders 
before  the  world  and  celebrate  their  return  to 
clothing  in  three  or  four  volumes  and  a  map. 
This  exaction,  in  the  nature  of  things,  must 
shortly  abolish  itself;  and  meantime  I  would 
compound  with  any  possible  creditors  by  the 
reduced  offer  of  three  or  four  maps  and  a  volume. 

As  a  minor  traveller,  whose  assets  are  few, 
I  have  struggled  to  evade  even  this  obligation, 
but  having  recently  had  to  lecture  on  African 
subjects  to  various  learned  and  unlearned 
Societies  in  England  and  America,  it  has  been 
urged  upon  me  that  a  few  of  the  lecture-notes 
thrown  into  popular  form  might  be  useful  as  a 
general  sketch  of  East  Central  Africa.  Great 
books  of  travel  have  had  their  day.    But  small 


vi 


PREFACE 


books,  with  the  larger  features  of  a  country 
lightly  sketched,  and  just  enough  of  narrative  to 
make  you  feel  that  you  are  really  there,  have  a 
function  in  helping  the  imagination  of  those 
who  have  not  breath  enough  to  keep  up  with 
the  great  explorers. 

The  publication  of  ''The  White  Ant"  and 
Mimicry  "  has  been  already  forestalled  by  one 
of  the  monthly  magazines  ;  and  the  Geological 
Sketch  "  is  rescued,  and  duly  dusted,  from  the 
archives  of  the  British  Association.  If  the 
dust  of  science  has  been  too  freely  shaken  from 
the  other  chapters,  the  scientific  reader  will 
overlook  it  for  the  sake  of  an  overworked 
public  which  has  infinite  trouble  in  getting 
itself  mildly  instructed  and  entertained  without 
being  disheartened  by  the  heavy  pomp  of 
technical  expression. 

If  anything  in  a  work  of  this  class  could 
pretend  to  a  serious  purpose,  I  do  not  conceal 
that,  in  addition  to  the  mere  desire  to  inform, 
a  special  reason  exists  just  now  for  writing 
about  Africa — a  reason  so  urgent  that  I  excuse 
myself  with  difficulty  for  introducing  so  grave 


PREFACE 


vii 


a  problem  in  so  slight  a  setting.  The  reader 
who  runs  his  eye  over  the  Heart-Disease  of 
Africa"  will  discover  how  great  the  need  is 
for  arousing  afresh  that  truer  interest  in  the 
Dark  Continent  which  since  Livingstone's 
time  has  almost  died  away.  To  many  modern 
travellers  Africa  is  simply  a  country  to  be 
explored  ;  to  Livingstone  it  was  a  land  to  be 
pitied  and  redeemed.  And  recent  events  on 
Lake  Nyassa  have  stirred  a  new  desire  in  the 
hearts  of  those  who  care  for  native  Africa  that 
"the  open  sore  of  the  world"  should  have  a 
last  and  decisive  treatment  at  the  hands  of 
England. 

HENRY  DRUMMOND. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  WATER-ROUTE  TO  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA  :  THE 
RIVERS  ZAMBESI  AND   SHIr6  .... 

CHAPTER  H 

THE  EAST  AFRICAN  LAKE  COUNTRY  :  LAKES  SHIRWA 
AND  NYASSA  ....... 

CHAPTER  HI 

THE    ASPECT    OF    THE    HEART    OF     AFRICA  :  THE 
COUNTRY  AND  PEOPLE  ..... 

CHAPTER  IV 

THE    HEART  -  DISEASE    OF    AFRICA  :    ITS  PATHOLOGY 
AND  CURE  ....... 


CHAPTER  V 

WANDERINGS  ON  THE  NYASSA-TANGANYIKA  PLATEAU  : 
A  TRAVELLER'S  DIARY  


X 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  VI 

PAGE 

THE  WHITE  ant:  A  THEORY  .  .  .  .  .121 

CHAPTER  Vn 

MIMICRY:  THE  WAYS  OF  AFRICAN  INSECTS       .  .        1 59 

CHAPTER  VHI 

A  GEOLOGICAL  SKETCH  l8l 

CHAPTER  IX 

A  POLITICAL  WARNING  20I 

CHAPTER  X 

A  METEOROLOGICAL  NOTE        .  .         .  .  .223 


LIST  OF  MAPS 


I.  Author's  Route  Map     .       .       .  Frontispiece 

11.  Oreographical  Map       ...  „ 

III.  Slave-Trade  Map  Page  67 

IV.  Geological  Sketch-Map  .  .  .  „  181 
V.  Political  Map  according  to  Agreements    .  End 

VI.  Political  Map  according  to  Arbitrary  Claims  „ 


I 

THE  WATER-ROUTE  TO  THE  HEART 
OF  AFRICA 

THE  ZAMBESI  AND  SHIR^: 


B 


I 


THE  WATER-ROUTE  TO  THE  HEART  OF 
AFRICA 

THE  ZAMBESI  AND  SHIRE 
'T^HREE   distinct   Africas   are   known    to  the 


modern  world  —  North  Africa,  where  men  go 
for  health  ;  South  Africa,  where  they  go  for  money  ; 
and  Central  Africa,  where  they  go  for  adventure. 
The  first,  the  old  Africa  of  Augustine  and  Carthage, 
every  one  knows  from  history  ;  the  geography  of 
the  second,  the  Africa  of  the  Zulu  and  the  diamond, 
has  been  taught  us  by  two  Universal  Educators — 
War  and  the  Stock  -  Exchange  ;  but  our  knowledge 
of  the  third,  the  Africa  of  Livingstone  and  Stanley, 
is  still  fitly  symbolised  by  the  vacant  look  upon  our 
maps  which  tells  how  long  this  mysterious  land  has 
kept  its  secret. 

Into  the  heart  of  this  mysterious  Africa  I  wish  to 
take  you  with  me  now.    And  let  me  magnify  my 


4        WATER  ROUTE  TO  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 


subject  by  saying  at  once  that  it  is  a  wonderful 
thing  to  see.  It  is  a  wonderful  thing  to  start  from 
the  civilisation  of  Europe,  pass  up  these  mighty 
rivers,  and  work  your  way  into  that  unknown  land 
— work  your  way  alone,  and  on  foot,  mile  after  mile, 
month  after  month,  among  strange  birds  and  beasts 
and  plants  and  insects,  meeting  tribes  which  have  no 
name,  speaking  tongues  which  no  man  can  interpret, 
till  you  have  reached  its  secret  heart,  and  stood 
where  white  man  has  never  trod  before.  It  is  a 
wonderful  thing  to  look  at  this  weird  world  of  human 
beings — half  animal  half  children,  wholly  savage  and 
wholly  heathen  ;  and  to  turn  and  come  back  again 
to  civilisation  before  the  impressions  have  had  time 
to  fade,  and  while  the  myriad  problems  of  so  strange 
a  spectacle  are  still  seething  in  the  mind.  It  is  an 
education  to  see  this  sight — an  education  in  the 
meaning  and  history  of  man.  To  have  been  here  is 
to  have  lived  before  Menes.  It  is  to  have  watched 
the  dawn  of  evolution.  It  is  to  have  the  great 
moral  and  social  problems  of  life,  of  anthropology, 
of  ethnology,  and  even  of  theology,  brought  home  to 
the  imagination  in  the  most  new  and  startling  light. 

On  the  longest  day  of  a  recent  summer — mid- 
winter therefore  in  the  tropics — I  left  London.  A 
long  railway  run  across  France,  Switzerland,  and 


THE  ZAMBESI  AND  SHIRE 


5 


Italy  brings  one  in  a  day  or  two  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean. Crossing  to  Alexandria,  the  traveller  strikes 
across  Egypt,  over  the  Nile,  through  the  battlefield 
of  Tel-el-Kebir,  to  the  Red  Sea,  steams  down  its 
sweltering  length  to  Aden,  tranships,  and,  after  three 
lifetimes  of  deplorable  humiliation  in  the  south-west 
Monsoons,  terminates  his  sufferings  at  Zanzibar. 

Zanzibar  is  the  focus  of  all  East  African  explora- 
tion. No  matter  where  you  are  going  in  the  interior, 
you  must  begin  at  Zanzibar.  Oriental  in  its  appear- 
ance, Mohammedan  in  its  religion,  Arabian  in  its 
morals,  this  cesspool  of  wickedness  is  a  fit  capital 
for  the  Dark  Continent.  But  Zanzibar  is  Zanzibar 
simply  because  it  is  the  only  apology  for  a  town  on 
the  whole  coast.  An  immense  outfit  is  required  to 
penetrate  this  shopless  and  foodless  land,  and  here 
only  can  the  traveller  make  up  his  caravan.  The 
ivory  and  slave  trades  have  made  caravaning  a  pro- 
fession, and  everything  the  explorer  wants  is  to  be 
had  in  these  bazaars,  from  a  tin  of  sardines  to  a 
repeating  rifle.  Here  these  black  villains  the  porters, 
the  necessity  and  the  despair  of  travellers,  the  scum 
of  old  slave  gangs,  and  the  fugitives  from  justice  from 
every  tribe,  congregate  for  hire.  And  if  there  is  one 
thing  on  which  African  travellers  are  for  once  agreed, 
it  is  that  for  laziness,  ugliness,  stupidness,  and  wicked- 


6        WATER  ROUTE  TO  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 


ness,  these  men  are  not  to  be  matched  on  any  con- 
tinent in  the  world.  Their  one  strong  point  is  that 
they  will  engage  themselves  for  the  Victoria  Nyanza 
or  for  the  Grand  Tour  of  the  Tanganyika  with  as 
little  ado  as  a  Chamounix  guide  volunteers  for  the 
Jardin  ;  but  this  singular  avidity  is  mainly  due  to 
the  fact  that  each  man  cherishes  the  hope  of  running 
away  at  the  earliest  opportunity.  Were  it  only  to 
avoid  requiring  to  employ  these  gentlemen,  having 
them  for  one's  sole  company  month  after  month, 
seeing  them  transgress  every  commandment  in  turn 
before  your  eyes — ^you  yourself  being  powerless  to 
check  them  except  by  a  wholesale  breach  of  the 
sixth — it  would  be  worth  while  to  seek  another 
route  into  the  heart  of  Africa. 

But  there  is  a  much  graver  objection  to  the  Zan- 
zibar route  to  the  interior.  Stanley  started  by  this 
route  on  his  search  for  Livingstone,  two  white  men 
with  him  ;  he  came  back  without  them.  Cameron 
set  out  by  the  same  path  to  cross  Africa  with  two 
companions  ;  before  he  got  to  Tanganyika  he  was 
alone.  The  Geographical  Society's  late  expedition, 
under  Mr.  Keith  Johnston,  started  from  Zanzibar 
with  two  Europeans  ;  the  hardy  and  accomplished 
leader  fell  within  a  couple  of  months.  These  expe- 
ditions have  all  gone  into  the  interior  by  this  one 


THE  ZAMBESI  AND  SHIRE 


7 


fatal  way,  and  probably  every  second  man,  by  fever 
or  by  accident,  has  left  his  bones  to  bleach  along 
the  road.  Hitherto  there  has  been  no  help  for  it. 
The  great  malarious  coast-belt  must  be  crossed,  and 
one  had  simply  to  take  his  life  in  his  hands  and  go 
through  with  it. 

But  now  there  is  an  alternative.  There  is  a  rival 
route  into  the  interior,  which,  though  it  is  not  with- 
out its  dark  places  too,  will  probably  yet  become  the 
great  highway  from  the  East  to  Central  Africa. 
Let  me  briefly  sketch  it. 

Africa,  speaking  generally,  is  a  vast,  ill-formed 
triangle.  It  has  no  peninsulas  ;  it  has  almost  no 
islands  or  bays  or  fjords.  But  three  great  inlets, 
three  mighty  rivers  piercing  it  to  the  very  heart, 
have  been  allocated  by  a  kind  Nature  one  to  each 
of  its  solid  sides.  On  the  north  is  the  river  of  the 
past,  flowing  through  Egypt,  as  Leigh  Hunt  says, 
"  like  some  grave,  mighty  thought  threading  a 
dream  " ;  on  the  west  the  river  of  the  future,  the  not 
less  mysterious  Congo  ;  and  on  the  east  the  little- 
known  Zambesi. 

The  physical  features  of  this  great  continent  are 
easily  grasped.  From  the  coast  a  low  scorched 
plain,  reeking  with  malaria,  extends  inland  in 
unbroken  monotony  for  two  or  three  hundred  miles. 


8        WATER  ROUTE  TO  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 


This  is  succeeded  by  mountains  slowly  rising  into  a 
plateau  some  2000  or  3000  feet  high  ;  and  this,  at 
some  hundreds  of  miles  distance,  forms  the  pedestal 
for  a  second  plateau  as  high  again.  This  last 
plateau,  4000  to  5000  feet  high,  may  be  said  to 
occupy  the  whole  of  Central  Africa.  It  is  only  on 
the  large  scale,  however,  that  these  are  to  be  reckoned 
plateaux  at  all.  When  one  is  upon  them  he  sees 
nothing  but  mountains  and  valleys  and  plains  of 
the  ordinary  type,  covered  for  the  most  part  with 
forest. 

I  have  said  that  Nature  has  supplied  each  side 
of  Africa  with  one  great  river.  By  going  some 
hundreds  of  miles  southward  along  the  coast  from 
Zanzibar  the  traveller  reaches  the  mouth  of  the 
Zambesi.  Livingstone  sailed  up  this  river  once,  and 
about  a  hundred  miles  from  its  mouth  discovered 
another  river  twisting  away  northwards  among  the 
mountains.  The  great  explorer  was  not  the  man  to 
lose  such  a  chance  of  penetrating  the  interior.  He 
followed  this  river  up,  and  after  many  wanderings 
found  himself  on  the  shores  of  a  mighty  lake.  The 
river  is  na'med  the  Shire,  and  the  lake — the  exist- 
ence of  which  was  quite  unknown  before,  is  Lake 
Nyassa.  Lake  Nyassa  is  350  miles  long;  so  that, 
with  the  Zambesi,  the  Shire,  and  this  great  lake,  we 


THE  ZAMBESI  AND  SHIRE 


9 


have  the  one  thing  required  to  open  up  East  Central 
Africa — a  water-route  to  the  interior.  But  this  is 
not  all.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  the  end 
of  Lake  Nyassa  another  lake  of  still  nobler  propor- 
tions takes  up  the  thread  of  communication.  Lake 
Tanganyika  is  450  miles  in  length.  Between  the 
lakes  stands  a  lofty  plateau,  cool,  healthy,  accessible, 
and  without  any  physical  barrier  to  interrupt  the 
explorer's  march.  By  this  route  the  Victoria  Nyanza 
and  the  Albert  Nyanza  may  be  approached  with 
less  fatigue,  less  risk,  and  not  less  speed,  than  by  the 
overland  trail  from  Zanzibar.  At  one  point  also, 
along  this  line,  one  is  within  a  short  march  of  that 
other  great  route  which  must  ever  be  regarded  as 
the  trunk-line  of  the  African  continent.  The  water- 
shed of  the  Congo  lies  on  this  Nyassa-Tanganyika 
plateau.  This  is  the  stupendous  natural  highway 
on  which  so  much  of  the  future  of  East  Central 
Africa  must  yet  depend. 

Ten  days  languid  steaming  from  Zanzibar  brings 
the  traveller  to  the  Zambesi  mouth.  The  bar  here 
has  an  evil  reputation,  and  the  port  is  fixed  on  a 
little  river  which  flows  into  the  Indian  Ocean  slightly 
to  the  north,  but  the  upper  reaches  of  which  almost 
join  the  Zambesi  at  some  distance  inland.  This  port 
is  the  Portuguese  settlement  of  Quilimane,  and  here 


lo      WATER  ROUTE  TO  7 HE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 


I  said  good-bye  to  the  steamer  and  to  civilisation. 
Some  distance  in  the  interior  stands  a  soHtary  pioneer 
Mission  station  of  the  Established  Church  of  Scot- 
land, and  still  farther  in,  on  Lake  Nyassa,  another 
outpost  of  a  sister  church.  My  route  led  past  both 
these  stations,  and  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  pick 
up  on  the  way  two  or  three  young  fellow-country- 
men who  were  going  up  to  relieve  the  mission  staff. 
For  the  latter  part  of  my  journey  I  was  quite  alone. 
All  African  work,  as  a  rule,  is  done  single-handed. 
It  is  not  always  easy  to  find  a  companion  for  such  a 
project,  and  the  climate  is  so  pestilential  that  when 
two  go,  you  and  your  friend  are  simply  nursing  each 
other  time  about,  and  the  expedition  never  gets  on. 
On  the  whole,  however,  the  solitary  course  is  not  to 
be  commended.  An  unutterable  loneliness  comes  i 
over  one  at  times  in  the  great  still  forests,  and  there 
is  a  stage  in  African  fever — and  every  one  must 
have  fever — when  the  watchful  hand  of  a  friend  may 
make  the  difference  between  life  and  death. 

After  leaving  Quilimane,  the  first  week  of  our 
journey  up  the  Qua-qua  was  one  long  picnic.  We 
had  two  small  row-boats,  the  sterns  covered  with  a 
sun-proof  awning,  and  under  these  we  basked,  and 
talked,  and  read  and  prospected,  from  dawn  to  sun- 
set.    Each  boat  was  paddled  by  seven  or  eight 


THE  ZAMBESI  AND  SHIRE 


natives — muscular  heathens,  whose  sole  dress  was 
a  pocket-handkerchief,  a  little  palm  oil,  and  a  few 
mosquitoes.  Except  at  first  the  river  was  only  a 
few  yards  broad,  and  changed  in  character  and 
novelty  every  hour.  Now  it  ran  through  a  grove 
of  cocoa-nut  palms — the  most  wonderful  and  beau- 
tiful tree  of  the  tropics.  Now  its  sullen  current 
oozed  through  a  foetid  swamp  of  mangroves — the 
home  of  the  crocodile  and  the  hippopotamus,  whose 
slimy  bodies  wallowed  into  the  pools  with  a  splash 
as  our  boats  sped  past.  Again  the  banks  became 
green  and  graceful,  the  long  plumed  grasses  bending 
to  the  stream,  and  the  whole  a  living  aviary  of  birds 
— the  white  ibis  and  the  gaunt  fish  eagle,  and  the 
exquisite  blue  and  scarlet  kingfisher  watching  its 
prey  from  the  overhanging  boughs.  The  business- 
like air  of  this  last  bird  is  tilmost  comical,  and  some- 
how sits  ill  on  a  creature  of  such  gorgeous  beauty. 
One  expects  him  to  flutter  away  before  the  approach 
of  so  material  a  thing  as  a  boat,  display  his  fairy 
plumage  in  a  few  airy  movements,  and  melt  away  in 
the  sunshine.  But  there  he  sits,  stolid  and  impass- 
ive, and  though  the  spray  of  the  paddles  almost  dashes 
in  his  face,  the  intent  eyes  never  move,  and  he  refuses 
to  acknowledge  the  intruder  by  so  much  as  a  glance. 
His  larger  ally,  the  black  and  white  spotted  king- 


12       WATER  ROUTE  TO  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 


fisher,  if  less  beautiful,  is  much  more  energetic,  and 
darts  about  the  bank  incessantly,  coquetting  with  the 
boat  from  reach  to  reach,  and  seldom  allowing  an 
inspection  close  enough  to  take  in  the  details  of  his 
piebald  coat. 

One  interests  oneself  in  these  things  more  par- 
ticularly because  there  is  nothing  at  first  especially 
striking  about  the  river  scenery  itself  Ten  or 
twenty  feet  of  bank  cuts  off  the  view  on  either  side, 
and  large  and  varied  features  are  wanting.  The 
banks  are  lined  with  the  densest  jungle  of  mangroves 
and  aquatic  grasses,  while  creepers  of  a  hundred 
kinds  struggle  for  life  among  the  interlacing  stems. 
We  saw  crocodiles  here  in  such  numbers  that  count 
was  very  soon  lost.  They  were  of  all  sizes,  from 
the  baby  specimen  which  one  might  take  home  in  a 
bottle,  to  the  enormous  bullet-proof  brute  the  size  of 
an  8 1 -ton  gun.  These  revolting  animals  take  their 
siesta  in  the  heat  of  the  day,  lying  prone  upon  the 
bank,  with  their  wedge-shaped  heads  directed 
towards  the  water.  When  disturbed  they  scuttle 
into  the  river  with  a  wriggling  movement,  the  pre- 
cipitancy of  which  defies  the  power  of  sight.  The 
adjustment  of  the  adult  crocodile  to  its  environment 
in  the  matter  of  colour  is  quite  remarkable.  The 
younger  forms  are  lighter  yellow,  and  more  easily 


THE  ZAMBESI  AND  SHIRE 


13 


discoverable,  but  it  takes  the  careful  use  of  a  good 
pair  of  eyes  to  distinguish  in  the  gnarled  slime- 
covered  log  lying  among  the  rotting  stumps  the 
living  form  of  the  mature  specimen.  Between  the 
African  crocodiles  and  the  alligators  there  is  the 
slightest  possible  external  difference  ;  although  the 
longer  head,  the  arrangement  of  scales,  the  fringed 
feet  with  their  webbed  toes,  the  uniform  teeth,  and 
the  protrusion  of  the  large  canine,  distinguish  them 
from  their  American  allies. 

Many  of  the  ibises  I  shot  as  we  moved  along,  for 
food  for  the  men,  who,  like  all  Africans,  will  do  any- 
thing for  flesh  in  whatever  form.  For  ourselves,  we 
lived  upon  emaciated  fowls  and  tinned  meats,  cook- 
ing them  at  a  fire  on  the  bank  when  the  boat  stopped. 
Eggs  are  never  eaten  by  the  natives,  but  always  set  ; 
although,  if  you  offer  to  buy  them,  the  natives  will 
bring  you  a  dozen  from  a  sitting  hen,  which  they 
assure  you  were  laid  that  very  morning.  In  the 
interior,  on  many  occasions  afterwards,  these  protesta- 
tions were  tested,  and  always  proved  false.  One  time, 
when  nearly  famished  and  far  from  camp,  I  was 
brought  a  few  eggs  which  a  chief  himself  guaranteed 
had  that  very  hour  been  laid.  With  sincere  hope 
that  he  might  be  right,  but  with  much  misgiving,  I 
ordered  the  two  freshest-looking  to  be  boiled.  With 


14       WATER  ROUTE  TO  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 


the  despair  of  a  starving  man  I  opened  them.  They 
were  cock  and  hen. 

Breakfast  and  luncheon  and  dinner  are  all  the 
same  in  Africa.  There  is  no  beef,  nor  mutton,  nor 
bread,  nor  flour,  nor  sugar,  nor  salt,  nor  anything 
whatever,  except  an  occasional  fowl,  which  an  English- 
man can  eat.  Hence  the  enormous  outfit  which  he 
must  carry  with  him.  No  one  has  any  idea  of  what 
can  be  had  in  tins  till  he  camps  out  abroad.  Every 
conceivable  digestible  and  indigestible  is  to  be  had 
tinned,  every  form  of  fish,  flesh,  fowl,  and  game, 
every  species  of  vegetable  and  fruit,  every  soup,  sweet, 
and  entree ;  but  after  two  or  three  months  of  this 
sort  of  thing  you  learn  that  this  tempting  semblance 
of  variety  is  a  gigantic  imposition.  The  sole  differ- 
ence between  these  various  articles  lies,  like  the  Rhine 
wines,  in  the  label.  Plum  pudding  or  kippered  her- 
ring taste  just  the  same.  Whether  you  begin  dinner 
with  tinned  calves -foot  jelly  or  end  with  tinned 
salmon  makes  no  difference ;  and  after  six  months 
it  is  only  by  a  slight  feeling  of  hardness  that  you  do 
not  swallow  the  tins  themselves. 

At  the  end  of  a  too  short  week  we  left  our  boats 
behind.  Engaging  an  army  of  shy  natives  at  a  few 
huts  near  the  bank,  we  struck  across  a  low  neck  of 
land,  and  after  an  hour's  walk  found  ourselves  sud- 


THE  ZAMBESI  AND  SHIRE 


denly  on  the  banks  of  the  Zambesi.  A  soHtary 
bungalow  was  in  sight,  and  opposite  it  the  little 
steamer  of  the  African  Lakes  Company,  which  was 
to  take  us  up  the  Shire.  There  is  more  in  the  asso- 
ciation, perhaps,  than  in  the  landscape,  to  strike  one 
as  he  first  furrows  the  waters  of  this  virgin  river. 
We  are  fifty  miles  from  its  mouth,  the  mile-wide 
water  shallow  and  brown,  the  low  sandy  banks 
fringed  with  alligators  and  wild  birds.  The  great 
deltoid  plain,  yellow  with  sun-tanned  reeds  and 
sparsely  covered  with  trees,  stretches  on  every  side  ; 
the  sun  is  blistering  hot  ;  the  sky,  as  it  will  be  for 
months,  a  monotonous  dome  of  blue — not  a  frank 
bright  blue  like  the  Canadian  sky,  but  a  veiled  blue, 
a  suspicious  and  malarious  blue,  partly  due  to  the 
perpetual  heat  haze  and  partly  to  the  imagination, 
for  the  Zambesi  is  no  friend  to  the  European,  and 
this  whole  region  is  heavy  with  depressing  memories. 

This  impression,  perhaps,  was  heightened  by  the 
fact  that  we  were  to  spend  that  night  within  a  few 
yards  of  the  place  where  IVIrs.  Livingstone  died. 
Late  in  the  afternoon  we  reached  the  spot — a  low 
ruined  hut  a  hundred  yards  from  the  river's  bank, 
with  a  broad  verandah  shading  its  crumbling  walls. 
A  grass-grown  path  straggled  to  the  doorway,  and 
the  fresh  print  of  a  hippopotamus  told  how  neglected 


1 6       WATER  ROUTE  TO  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 


the  spot  is  now.  Pushing  the  door  open,  we  found 
ourselves  in  a  long  dark  room,  its  mud  floor  broken 
into  fragments,  and  remains  of  native  fires  betraying 
its  latest  occupants.  Turning  to  the  right,  we  entered 
a  smaller  chamber,  the  walls  bare  and  stained,  with  two 
glassless  windows  facing  the  river.  The  evening  sun, 
setting  over  the  far-off  Morumballa  mountains,  filled 
the  room  with  its  soft  glow,  and  took  our  thoughts 
back  to  that  Sunday  evening  twenty  years  ago,  when 
in  this  same  bedroom,  at  this  same  hour,  Livingstone 
knelt  over  his  dying  wife,  and  witnessed  the  great 
sunset  of  his  life. 

Under  a  huge  baobab  tree — a  miracle  of  vege- 
table vitality  and  luxuriance — stands  Mrs.  Living- 
stone's grave.  The  picture  in  Livingstone's  book 
represents  the  place  as  well  kept  and  surrounded 
with  neatly-planted  trees.  But  now  it  is  an  utter 
wilderness,  matted  with  jungle  grass  and  trodden  by 
the  beasts  of  the  forest ;  and  as  I  looked  at  the  for- 
saken mound  and  contrasted  it  with  her  husband's 
tomb  in  Westminster  Abbey,  I  thought  perhaps  the 
woman's  love  which  brought  her  to  a  spot  like  this 
might  be  not  less  worthy  of  immortality. 

The  Zambesi  is  the  great  river  of  Eastern  Africa, 
and  after  the  Congo,  the  Nile,  and  the  Niger,  the  most 
important  on  the  continent.      Rising  in   the  far 


THE  ZAMBESI  AND  SHIRE 


17 


interior  among  the  marshes  of  Lake  Dilolo,  and 
gathering  volume  from  the  streams  which  flow  from 
the  high  lands  connecting  the  north  of  Lake  Nyassa 
with  Inner  Angola,  it  curves  across  the  country  for 
over  a  thousand  miles  like  an  attenuated  letter  S,  and 
before  its  four  great  mouths  empty  the  far-travelled 
waters  into  the  Indian  Ocean,  drains  an  area  of 
more  than  half  a  million  square  miles.  As  it  cuts  its 
way  down  the  successive  steps  of  the  central  plateaux 
its  usually  placid  current  is  interrupted  by  rapids, 
narrows,  cascades,  and  cataracts,  corresponding  to  the 
plateau  edges,  so  that  like  all  the  rivers  of  Africa  it  is 
only  navigable  in  stretches  of  one  or  two  hundred  miles 
at  a  time.  From  the  coast  the  Zambesi  might  be 
stemmed  by  steam-power  to  the  rapids  of  Kebrabasa  ; 
and  from  above  that  point  intermittently,  as  far  as  the 
impassable  barrier  of  the  Victoria  Falls.  Above  this, 
for  some  distance,  again  follow  rapids  and  waterfalls, 
but  these  are  at  length  succeeded  by  an  unbroken 
chain  of  tributaries  which  together  form  an  inland 
waterway  of  a  thousand  miles  in  length.  The  broad 
lands  along  the  banks  of  this  noble  river  are  subject 
to  annual  inundations  like  the  region  of  the  Nile,  and 
hence  their  agricultural  possibilities  are  unlimited. 
On  the  lower  Zambesi,  indigo,  the  orchilla  weed,  and 
calumba-root  abound,  and  oil-seeds  and  sugar-cane 

C 


1 8       WATER-ROUTE  TO  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 


could  be  produced  in  quantity  to  supply  the  whole 
of  Europe.  At  present  owing  to  apathy  and  in- 
different government  these  magnificent  resources  are 
almost  wholly  undeveloped. 

Next  afternoon  our  little  vessel  left  the  Zambesi 
in  its  wake  and  struck  up  a  fine  lake-like  expansion 
to  the  north,  which  represents  the  mouth  of  the  Shire. 
Narrower  and  deeper,  the  tributary  is  a  better  stream 
for  navigation  than  the  Zambesi.  The  scenery  also 
is  really  fine,  especially  as  one  nears  the  mountains 
of  the  plateau,  and  the  strange  peoples  and  animals 
along  the  banks  occupy  the  mind  with  perpetual 
interests.  The  hippopotami  prowling  round  the  boat 
and  tromboning  at  us  within  pistol-shot  kept  us 
awake  at  night ;  and  during  the  day  we  could  see 
elephants,  buffaloes,  deer,  and  other  large  game 
wandering  about  the  banks.  To  see  the  elephant  at 
home  is  a  sight  to  remember.  The  stupendous 
awkwardness  of  the  menagerie  animal,  as  if  so  large 
a  creature  were  quite  a  mistake,  vanishes  completely 
when  you  watch  him  in  his  native  haunts.  Here  he 
is  as  nimble  as  a  kitten,  and  you  see  how  perfectly 
this  moving  mountain  is  adapted  to  its  habitat — how 
such  a  ponderous  monster,  indeed,  is  as  natural  to 
these  colossal  grasses  as  a  rabbit  to  an  English  park. 
We  were  extremely  fortunate  in  seeing  elephants  at 


THE  ZAMBESI  AND  SHIRE 


19 


all  at  this  stage,  and  I  question  whether  there  is  any 
other  part  of  Africa  where  these  animals  may  be 
observed  leisurely  and  in  safety  within  six  weeks  of 
London.  Mr.  Stanley  in  his  Livingstone  expedition 
was  ten  months  in  the  country  before  he  saw  any  ; 
and  Mr.  Joseph  Thomson,  during  his  long  journey  to 
Tanganyika  and  back,  never  came  across  a  single 
elephant.  It  is  said  that  the  whale  which  all  travel- 
lers see  in  crossing  the  Atlantic  is  kept  up  by  the 
steamboat  companies,  but  I  vouch  that  these  Shire 
valley  elephants  are  independent  of  subsidy. 

The  question  of  the  disappearance  of  the  elephant 
here  and  throughout  Africa  is,  as  every  one  knows, 
only  one  of  a  few  years.  It  is  hard  to  think  why 
this  kindly  and  sagacious  creature  should  have  to  be 
exterminated  ;  why  this  vast  store  of  animal  energy, 
which  might  be  turned  into  so  much  useful  work, 
should  be  lost  to  civilisation.  But  the  causes  are 
not  difficult  to  understand.  The  African  elephant 
has  never  been  successfully  tamed,  and  is  therefore 
a  failure  as  a  source  of  energy.  As  a  source  of 
ivory,  on  the  other  hand,  he  has  been  but  too  great 
a  success.  The  cost  of  ivory  at  present  is  about 
half-a-sovereign  per  pound.  An  average  tusk  weighs 
from  twenty  to  thirty  pounds.  Each  animal  has 
two,  and  in  Africa  both  male  and  female  carry  tusks. 


20       WATER- ROUTE  TO  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 


The  average  elephant  is  therefore  worth  in  pounds 
sterling  the  weight  in  pounds  avoirdupois  of  one  of 
his  tusks.  I  have  frequently  seen  single  tusks  turn- 
ing the  scale  upon  ninety  pounds,  the  pair  in  this 
case  being  worth  nearly  1 00  sterling, — so  that  a 
herd  of  elephants  is  about  as  valuable  as  a  gold 
mine.  The  temptation  to  sacrifice  the  animal  for 
his  tusks  is  therefore  great  ;  and  as  he  becomes 
scarcer  he  will  be  pursued  by  the  hunter  with  ever- 
increasing  eagerness.  But  the  truth  is,  sad  though 
the  confession  be,  the  sooner  the  last  elephant  falls 
before  the  hunter's  bullet  the  better  for  Africa. 
Ivory  introduces  into  the  country  at  present  an 
abnormal  state  of  things.  Upon  this  one  article  is 
set  so  enormous  a  premium  that  none  other  among 
African  products  secures  the  slightest  general  atten- 
tion ;  nor  will  almost  anyone  in  the  interior  con- 
descend to  touch  the  normal  wealth,  or  develop  the 
legitimate  industries  of  the  country,  so  long  as  a 
tusk  remains.  In  addition  to  this,  of  half  the  real 
woes  which  now  exist  in  Africa  ivory  is  at  the 
bottom.  It  is  not  only  that  wherever  there  is  an 
article  to  which  a  fictitious  value  is  attached  the 
effect  upon  the  producer  is  apt  to  be  injurious  ;  nor 
that  wherever  there  is  money  there  is  temptation, 
covetousness,  and  war  ;  but  that  unprincipled  men, 


THE  ZAMBESI  AND  SHIRE 


21 


and  especially  Arabs,  are  brought  into  contact  with 
the  natives  in  the  worst  relation,  influence  them  only 
in  one  and  that  the  lowest  direction,  and  leave  them 
always  worse  than  they  find  them — vv^orse  in  greed, 
in  knavery,  in  their  belief  in  mankind,  and  in  their 
suspicion  of  civilisation.  Further,  for  every  tusk  an 
Arab  trader  purchases  he  must  buy,  borrow,  or  steal 
a  slave  to  carry  it  to  the  coast.  Domestic  slavery 
is  bad  enough,  but  now  begins  the  long  slave-march 
with  its  untold  horrors — horrors  instigated  and  per- 
petuated almost  solely  by  the  traffic  in  ivory.  The 
extermination  of  the  elephant,  therefore,  will  mark 
one  stage  at  least  in  the  closing  up  of  the  slave- 
trade.  The  elephant  has  done  much  for  Africa. 
The  best  he  can  do  now  for  his  country  is  to  dis- 
appear for  ever. 

In  books  of  travel  great  chiefs  are  usually  called 
kings,  their  wives  queens,  while  their  mud-huts  are 
always  palaces.  But  after  seeing  my  first  African 
chief  at  home,  I  found  I  must  either  change  my 
views  of  kings  or  of  authors.  The  regal  splendour 
of  Chipitula's  court — and  Chipitula  was  a  very  great 
chief  indeed,  and  owned  all  the  Shire  district — may 
be  judged  of  by  the  fact  that  when  I  paid  my 
respects  to  his  highness  his  court -dress  consisted 
almost  exclusively  of  a  pair  of  suspenders.     I  made 


22       WATER-ROUTE  TO  THE  HEAR!  OF  AFRICA 


this  king  happy  for  life  by  the  gift  of  a  scarlet  tennis- 
cap  and  a  few  buttons.  But  poor  Chipitula  had  not 
long  to  enjoy  his  treasures, — and  I  mention  the 
incident  to  show  what  is  going  on  every  day  in 
Africa.  When  I  came  back  that  way,  on  my  return 
journey,  I  called  again  to  receive  a  leopard  skin 
which  this  chief  had  promised  to  trap  for  me,  and 
for  which  he  was  to  get  in  exchange  certain  dilapi- 
dated remnants  of  my  wardrobe.  He  gave  me  the 
skin  ;  I  duly  covered  his,  and  we  parted.  A  few 
days  after,  another  white  man  came  that  way  ;  he 
was  a  trader — the  only  one  who  has  yet  plied  this 
hazardous  calling  in  East  Central  Africa.  He  quar- 
relled with  Chipitula  over  some  bargain,  and  in  a 
moment  of  passion  drew  his  revolver  and  shot  the 
chief  dead  on  the  spot.  Of  course  he  himself  was 
instantly  speared  by  Chipitula's  men  ;  and  all  his 
black  porters,  according  to  native  etiquette,  were 
butchered  with  their  master.  There  is  absolutely 
no  law  in  Africa,  and  you  can  kill  anybody  and 
anybody  can  kill  you,  and  no  one  will  ask  any 
questions. 

Our  next  stoppage  was  to  pay  another  homage — 
truly  this  is  a  tragic  region — at  another  white  man's 
grave.  A  few  years  ago  Bishop  Mackenzie  and 
some  other  missionaries  were  sent  to  Africa  by  the 


THE  ZAMBESI  AND  SHIRE 


23 


English  Universities,  with  instructions  to  try  to 
establish  a  Mission  in  the  footsteps  of  Livingstone. 
They  came  here  ;  the  climate  overpowered  them  ; 
one  by  one  they  sickened  and  died.  With  the  death 
of  the  Bishop  himself  the  site  was  abandoned,  and 
the  few  survivors  returned  home.  Among  the  hip- 
popotamus-trampled reeds  on  the  banks  of  the  Shire, 
under  a  rough  iron  cross,  lies  the  first  of  three  brave 
bishops  who  have  already  made  their  graves  in 
Equatorial  Africa. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  Shire  as  the  great  waterway 
into  the  interior  of  Eastern  Africa.  It  has  one 
defect.  After  sailing  for  five  or  six  days  we  came 
to  rapids  which  no  boat  can  pass.  These  rapids 
were  named  by  Livingstone  the  Murchison  Cataracts, 
and  they  extend  for  seventy  miles.  This  distance, 
accordingly,  must  be  traversed  overland.  Half-way 
up  this  seventy  miles,  and  a  considerable  distance 
inland  from  the  river,  stands  the  first  white  settle- 
ment in  East  Central  Africa — the  Blantyre  Mission. 
Bribing  about  a  hundred  natives  with  a  promise  of 
a  fathom  of  calico  each,  to  carry  our  luggage,  we  set 
off  on  foot  for  Blantyre.  The  traditional  character- 
istics of  African  caravaning  were  displayed  in  full 
perfection  during  this  first  experience,  and  darkness 
fell  when  we  were  but  half-way  to  our  destination. 


24       WATER  ROUTE  TO  THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 


It  was  our  first  night  in  the  bush,  and  a  somewhat 
unusual  introduction  to  African  travelling  marked  it. 
At  midnight  we  were  roused  by  startling  cries  from 
our  men,  who  lay  sleeping  on  the  ground  around  us. 
The  watch-fires  must  have  burned  down,  for  a  lion 
had  suddenly  sprung  into  the  camp.  Seizing  the 
man  who  lay  nearest  the  forest,  the  animal  buried  its 
claws  in  his  breast,  and  was  making  off  into  the 
darkness,  when  the  shouting  frightened  it  and  made 
it  drop  its  prey.  Twice  during  the  night  the  lion 
came  back,  and  we  whites  had  to  keep  watch  by 
turns  till  morning  with  loaded  rifles.  This  is  alto- 
gether an  exceptional  case,  for  with  a  good  fire  one 
can  generally  spread  his  mat  anywhere  in  the  tropics 
without  fear  of  midnight  attack.  This  is  a  famous 
place,  however,  for  lions,  and  one  can  as  certainly 
depend  on  their  gruesome  concert  in  the  early  morn- 
ing as  on  the  sparrows'  chirp  in  England. 

Towards  sunset  the  following  evening  our  caravan 
filed  into  Blantyre.  On  the  beauty  and  interest  of 
this  ideal  mission  I  shall  not  dwell.  But  if  anyone 
wishes  to  find  out  what  can  be  done  with  the  virgin 
African,  what  can  be  done  by  broad  and  practical 
missionary  methods,  let  him  visit  the  Rev.  D. 
Clement  Scott  and  his  friends  at  Blantyre.  And  if 
he  wishes  to  observe  the  possibilities  of  civilisation 


THE  ZAMBESI  AND  SHIRE 


25 


and  colonisation  among  an  average  African  tribe 
living  on  an  average  African  soil,  let  him  examine 
the  mission  plantations,  and  those  of  Mr.  John  and 
Mr.  Frederick  Moir  at  Mandala,  and  of  the  Brothers 
Buchanan  at  Zomba.  And,  further,  if  he  desires  to 
know  what  the  milk  of  human  kindness  is,  let  him 
time  his  attack  of  fever  so  that  haply  it  may  coincide 
with  his  visit  to  either  of  these  centres  of  self-denying 
goodness  and  hospitality. 


II 

THE  EAST  AFRICAN  LAKE 
COUNTRY 

LAKES  SHIRWA  AND  NYASSA 


II 


THE  EAST  AFRICAN  LAKE  COUNTRY 
LAKES  SHIRWA  AND  NYASSA 

QOMEWHERE  in  the  Shire  Highlands,  in  1859, 
^  Livingstone  saw  a  large  lake — Lake  Shirwa — 
which  is  still  almost  unknown.  It  lies  away  to  the 
East,  and  is  bounded  by  a  range  of  mountains  whose 
lofty  summits  are  visible  from  the  hills  round 
Blantyre.  Thinking  it  might  be  a  useful  initiation 
to  African  travel  if  I  devoted  a  short  time  to  its 
exploration,  I  set  off  one  morning  accompanied  by 
two  members  of  the  Blantyre  staff  and  a  small 
retinue  of  natives.  Steering  across  country  in  the 
direction  in  which  it  lay,  we  found,  two  days  before 
seeing  the  actual  water,  that  we  were  already  on  the 
ancient  bed  of  the  lake.  Though  now  clothed  with 
forest,  the  whole  district  has  obviously  been  under 
water  at  a  comparatively  recent  period,  and  the 
shores  of  Lake  Shirwa  probably  reached  at  one  time 


30  THE  EAST  AFRICAN  LAKE  COUNTRY 


to  within  a  few  miles  of  Blantyre  itself  On  reach- 
ing the  lake  a  very  aged  female  chief  came  to  see 
us,  and  told  us  how,  long  long  ago,  a  white  man 
came  to  her  village  and  gave  her  a  present  of  cloth. 
Of  the  white  man,  who  must  have  been  Livingstone, 
she  spoke  very  kindly  ;  and  indeed,  wherever  David 
Livingstone's  footsteps  are  crossed  in  Africa  the 
fragrance  of  his  memory  seems  to  remain. 

The  waters  of  Shirwa  are  brackish  to  the  taste, 
and  undrinkable  ;  but  the  saltness  must  have  a 
peculiar  charm  for  game,  for  nowhere  else  in  Africa 
did  I  see  such  splendid  herds  of  the  larger  animals 
as  here.  The  zebra  was  especially  abundant ;  and 
so  unaccustomed  to  be  disturbed  are  these  creatures, 
that  with  a  little  care  one  could  watch  their  move- 
ments safely  within  a  very  few  yards.  It  may  seem 
unorthodox  to  say  so,  but  I  do  not  know  if  among 
the  larger  animals  there  is  anything  handsomer  in 
creation  than  the  zebra.  At  close  quarters  his 
striped  coat  is  all  but  as  fine  as  the  tiger's,  while  the 
form  and  movement  of  his  body  are  in  every  way 
nobler.  The  gait,  certainly,  is  not  to  be  compared 
for  gracefulness  with  that  of  the  many  species  of 
antelope  and  deer  who  nibble  the  grass  beside  him, 
and  one  can  never  quite  forget  that  scientifically  he 
is  an  ass  ;  but  taking  him  all  in  all,  this  fleet  and 


LAKES  SHIRWA  AND  NY  ASS  A 


31 


beautiful  animal  ought  to  have  a  higher  place  in  the 
regard  of  man  than  he  has  yet  received. 

We  were  much  surprised,  considering  that  this 
region  is  almost  uninhabited,  to  discover  near  the 
lake  shore  a  native  path  so  beaten,  and  so  recently 
beaten,  by  multitudes  of  human  feet,  that  it  could 
only  represent  some  trunk  route  through  the  conti- 
nent. Following  it  for  a  few  miles,  we  soon  discovered 
its  function.  It  was  one  of  the  great  slave  routes 
through  Africa.  Signs  of  the  horrid  traffic  soon 
became  visible  on  every  side  ;  and  from  symmetrical 
arrangements  of  small  piles  of  stones  and  freshly-cut 
twigs,  planted  semaphore -wise  upon  the  path,  our 
native  guides  made  out  that  a  slave-caravan  was 
actually  passing  at  the  time.  We  were,  in  factj 
between  two  portions  of  it,  the  stones  and  twigs 
being  telegraphic  signals  between  front  and  rear. 
Our  natives  seemed  much  alarmed  at  this  discovery, 
and  refused  to  proceed  unless  we  promised  not  to 
interfere — a  proceeding  which,  had  we  attempted  it, 
would  simply  have  meant  murder  for  ourselves  and 
slavery  for  them.  Next  day,  from  a  hill-top,  we  saw 
the  slave  encampment  far  below,  and  the  ghastly 
procession  marshalling  for  its  march  to  the  distant 
coast,  which  many  of  the  hundreds  who  composed  it 
would  never  reach  alive. 


32  THE  EAST  AFRICAN  LAKE  COUNTRY 


Talking  of  native  footpaths  leads  me  to  turn 
aside  for  a  moment  to  explain  to  the  uninitiated 
the  true  mode  of  African  travel.     In  spite  of  all  the 
books  that  have  been  lavished  upon  us  by  our  great 
explorers,  few  people  seem  to  have  any  accurate 
understanding  of  this  most  simple  process.  Some 
have  the  impression  that  everything  is  done  in 
bullock-waggons — an  idea  borrowed  from  the  Cape, 
but  hopelessly  inapplicable  to  Central  Africa,  where 
a  wheel  at  present  would  be  as  great  a  novelty  as  a 
polar  bear.    Others  at  the  opposite  extreme  suppose 
that  the  explorer  works  along  solely  by  compass, 
making  a  bee-line  for  his  destination,  and  steering 
his  caravan  through  the  trackless  wilderness  like  a 
ship  at  sea.     Now  it  may  be  a  surprise  to  the  unen- 
lightened to  learn  that  probably  no  explorer  in  forc- 
ing his  passage  through  Africa  has  ever,  for  more  than 
a  few  days  at  a  time,  been  off  some  beaten  track. 
Probably  no  country  in  the  world,  civilised  or  un- 
civilised, is  better  supplied  with  paths  than  this 
unmapped  continent.     Every  village  is  connected 
with  some  other  village,  every  tribe  with  the  next 
tribe,  every  state  with  its  neighbour,  and  therefore 
with  all  the  rest.    The  explorer's  business  is  simply 
to  select  from  this  network  of  tracks,  keep  a  general 
direction,  and  hold  on  his  way.     Let  him  begin  at 


LAKES  SHIRWA  AND  NY  ASS  A  33 


Zanzibar,  plant  his  foot  on  a  native  footpath,  and 
set  his  face  towards  Tanganyika.  In  eight  months 
he  will  be  there.  He  has  simply  to  persevere.  From 
village  to  village  he  will  be  handed  on,  zigzagging 
it  may  be  sometimes  to  avoid  the  impassable  barriers 
of  nature  or  the  rarer  perils  of  hostile  tribes,  but 
never  taking  to  the  woods,  never  guided  solely  by 
the  stars,  never  in  fact  leaving  a  beaten  track,  till 
hundreds  and  hundreds  of  miles  are  between  him 
and  the  sea,  and  his  interminable  footpath  ends  with 
a  canoe,  on  the  shores  of  Tanganyika.  Crossing  the 
lake,  landing  near  some  native  village,  he  picks  up 
the  thread  once  more.  Again  he  plods  on  and  on, 
now  on  foot,  now  by  canoe,  but  always  keeping  his 
line  of  villages,  until  one  day  suddenly  he  sniffs  the 
sea-breeze  again,  and  his  faithful  foot-wide  guide 
lands  him  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard. 

Nor  is  there  any  art  in  finding  out  these  suc- 
cessive villages  with  their  intercommunicating  links. 
He  imtst  find  them  out.  A  whole  army  of  guides, 
servants,  carriers,  soldiers,  and  camp-followers  accom- 
pany him  in  his  march,  and  this  nondescript  regiment 
must  be  fed.  Indian  corn,  cassava,  mawere,  beans, 
and  bananas — these  do  not  grow  wild  even  in  Africa. 
Every  meal  has  to  be  bought  and  paid  for  in  cloth 
and  beads  ;  and  scarcely  three  days  can  pass  without 

D 


34  THE  EAST  AFRICAN  LAKE  COUNTRY 


a  call  having  to  be  made  at  some  village  where  the 
necessary  supplies  can  be  obtained.  A  caravan,  as 
a  rule,  must  live  from  hand  to  mouth,  and  its  march 
becomes  simply  a  regulated  procession  through  a 
chain  of  markets.  Not,  however,  that  there  are  any 
real  markets — there  are  neither  bazaars  nor  stores  in 
native  Africa.  Thousands  of  the  villages  through 
which  the  traveller  eats  his  way  may  never  have 
victualled  a  caravan  before.  But,  with  the  chief's 
consent,  which  is  usually  easily  purchased  for  a  showy 
present,  the  villages  unlock  their  larders,  the  women 
flock  to  the  grinding  stones,  and  basketfuls  of  food 
are  swiftly  exchanged  for  unknown  equivalents  in 
beads  and  calico. 

The  native  tracks  which  I  have  just  described 
are  the  same  in  character  all  over  Africa.  They  are 
veritable  footpaths,  never  over  a  foot  in  breadth, 
beaten  as  hard  as  adamant,  and  rutted  beneath  the 
level  of  the  forest  bed  by  centuries  of  native  traffic. 
As  a  rule  these  footpaths  are  marvellously  direct. 
Like  the  roads  of  the  old  Romans,  they  run  straight 
on  through  everything,  ridge  and  mountain  and  valley, 
never  shying  at  obstacles,  nor  anywhere  turning  aside 
to  breathe.  Yet  within  this  general  straightforward- 
ness there  is  a  singular  eccentricity  and  indirectness 
in  detail.    Although  the  African  footpath  is  on  the 


LAKES  SHIRWA  AND  NY  ASS  A 


35 


whole  a  bee-line,  no  fifty  yards  of  it  are  ever  straight. 
And  the  reason  is  not  far  to  seek.  If  a  stone  is 
encountered  no  native  will  ever  think  of  removing  it. 
Why  should  he  ?  It  is  easier  to  walk  round  it.  The 
next  man  who  comes  that  way  will  do  the  same.  He 
knows  that  a  hundred  men  are  following  him  ;  he 
looks  at  the  stone  ;  a  moment,  and  it  might  be  un- 
earthed and  tossed  aside,  but  no  ;  he  also  holds  on 
his  way.  It  is  not  that  he  resents  the  trouble,  it  is 
the  idea  that  is  wanting.  It  would  no  more  occur 
to  him  that  that  stone  was  a  displaceable  object,  and 
that  for  the  general  weal  he  might  displace  it,  than 
that  its  feldspar  was  of  the  orthoclase  variety. 
Generations  and  generations  of  men  have  passed 
that  stone,  and  it  still  waits  for  a  man  with  an 
altruistic  idea.  But  it  would  be  a  very  stony 
country  indeed — and  Africa  is  far  from  stony — that 
would  wholly  account  for  the  aggravating  oblique- 
ness and  indecision  of  the  African  footpath.  Prob- 
ably each  four  miles,  on  an  average  path,  is  spun 
out  by  an  infinite  series  of  minor  sinuosities,  to  five 
or  six.  Now  these  deflections  are  not  meaningless. 
Each  has  some  history — a  history  dating  back  per- 
haps a  thousand  years,  but  to  which  all  clue  has 
centuries  ago  been  lost.  The  leading  cause  probably 
is  fallen  trees.    When  a  tree  falls  across  a  path  no 


36 


THE  EAST  AFRICAN  LAKE  COUNTRY 


man  ever  removes  it.  As  in  the  case  of  the  stone, 
the  native  goes  round  it.  It  is  too  green  to  burn  in 
his  hut ;  before  it  is  dry,  and  the  white  ants  have 
eaten  it,  the  new  detour  has  become  part  and  parcel 
of  the  path.  The  smaller  irregularities,  on  the  other 
hand,  represent  the  trees  and  stumps  of  the  primeval 
forest  where  the  track  was  made  at  first.  But  what- 
ever the  cause,  it  is  certain  that  for  persistent 
straightforwardness  in  the  general,  and  utter  vacilla- 
tion and  irresolution  in  the  particular,  the  African 
roads  are  unique  in  engineering. 

Though  one  of  the  smaller  African  lakes,  Shirwa 
is  probably  larger  than  all  the  lakes  of  Great  Britain 
put  together.  With  the  splendid  environment  of 
mountains  on  three  of  its  sides,  softened  and  distanced 
by  perpetual  summer  haze,  it  reminds  one  somewhat 
of  the  Great  Salt  Lake  simmering  in  a  July  sun.  We 
pitched  our  tent  for  a  day  or  two  on  its  western 
shore  among  a  harmless  and  surprised  people  who 
had  never  gazed  on  the  pallid  countenances  of 
Englishmen  before.  Owing  to  the  ravages  of  the 
slaver  the  people  of  Shirwa  are  few,  scattered  and 
poor,  and  live  in  abiding  terror.  The  densest  popu- 
lation is  to  be  found  on  the  small  island,  heavily 
timbered  with  baobabs,  which  forms  a  picturesque 
feature  of  the  northern  end.    These  Wa-Nyassa,  or 


LAKES  SHIRWA  AND  NYASSA 


37 


people  of  the  lake,  as  they  call  themselves,  have 
been  driven  here  by  fear,  and  they  rarely  leave  their 
Lake-Dwelling  unless  under  cover  of  night.  Even 
then  they  are  liable  to  capture  by  any  man  of  a 
stronger  tribe  who  happens  to  meet  them,  and 
numbers  who  have  been  kidnapped  in  this  way  are 
to  be  found  in  the  villages  of  neighbouring  chiefs. 
This  is  an  amenity  of  existence  in  Africa  that  strikes 
one  as  very  terrible.  It  is  impossible  for  those  at 
home  to  understand  how  literally  savage  man  is  a 
chattel,  and  how  much  his  life  is  spent  in  the  mere 
safeguarding  of  his  main  asset,  i.e.  himself.  There 
are  actually  districts  in  Africa  where  three  natives 
cannot  be  sent  a  message  in  case  two  should  combine 
and  sell  the  third  before  they  return. 

After  some  time  spent  in  the  Lake  Shirwa  and 
Shire  districts,  I  set  out  for  the  Upper  Shire  and 
Lake  Nyassa.  Two  short  days'  walk  from  the 
settlement  at  Blantyre  brings  one  once  more  to 
the  banks  of  the  Shire.  Here  I  found  waiting 
the  famous  little  Ilala,  a  tiny  steamer,  little 
bigger  than  a  large  steam  launch.  It  belonged 
originally  to  the  missionaries  on  Lake  Nyassa, 
and  was  carried  here  a  few  years  ago  from 
England  in  seven  hundred  pieces,  and  bolted 
together   on    the    river    bank.      No    chapter  in 


38  THE  EAST  AFRICAN  LAKE  COUNTRY 


romance  is  more  interesting  than  the  story  of  the 
pioneer  voyage  of  the  Ilala,  as  it  sailed  away  for 
the  first  time  towards  the  unknown  waters  of  Nyassa. 
No  keel  had  ever  broken  the  surface  of  this  mighty 
lake  before,  and  the  wonderment  of  the  natives  as 
the  Big  Canoe  hissed  past  their  villages  is  described 
by  those  who  witnessed  it  as  a  spectacle  of  indescrib- 
able interest.  The  Ilala  is  named,  of  course,  after 
the  village  where  David  Livingstone  breathed  his 
last.  It  indicates  the  heroic  mission  of  the  little  ship 
— to  take  up  the  work  of  Civilisation  and  Christianity 
where  the  great  explorer  left  it.  The  Ilala  now  plies 
at  intervals  between  the  Upper  Shire — above  the 
cataracts — and  the  shores  of  Lake  Nyassa,  carrying 
supplies  to  the  handful  of  missionaries  settled  on  the 
western  shore.  Though  commanded  by  a  white  man, 
the  work  on  board  is  entirely  done  by  natives  from 
the  locality.  The  confidence  of  the  black  people 
once  gained,  no  great  difficulty  seems  to  have  been 
found  in  getting  volunteers  enough  for  this  novel 
employment.  Singularly  enough,  while  deck  hands 
are  often  only  enlisted  after  some  persuasion,  the 
competition  for  the  office  of  fireman — a  disagreeable 
post  at  any  time,  but  in  the  tropical  heat  the  last  to 
be  coveted — is  so  keen  that  any  number  of  natives 
are  at  all  times  ready  to  be  frizzled  in  the  stokehole. 


LAKES  SHIRWA  AND  NY  ASS  A 


39 


Instead  of  avoiding  heat,  the  African  native  every- 
where courts  it.  His  nature  expands  and  revels  in 
it ;  while  a  breath  of  cold  on  a  mountain  slope,  or  a 
sudden  shower  of  rain,  transforms  him  instantly  into 
a  most  woebegone  object. 

After  leaving  Matope,  just  above  the  Murchison 
cataracts,  the  Ilala  steams  for  a  couple  of  days  in  the 
river  before  Lake  Nyassa  is  reached.  The  valley 
throughout  this  length  is  very  broad,  bounded  on 
either  side  by  distant  mountains  which  at  an  earlier 
period  probably  formed  the  shores  of  a  larger  Lake 
Nyassa.  The  fact  that  Lake  Nyassa  is  silting  up  at 
its  southern  end  becomes  more  apparent  as  one  nears 
the  lake,  for  here  one  finds  a  considerable  expanse 
already  cut  off  from  the  larger  portion,  and  forming 
a  separate  sheet  of  water.  The  smaller  lake  is  Lake 
Pomalombe,  and  it  is  already  so  shallow  that  in  the 
dry  season  the  Ilala's  screw  stirs  the  gray  mud  at 
the  bottom.  The  friendship  of  the  few  villages  along 
the  bank  is  secured  by  an  occasional  present ;  although 
the  relations  between  some  of  them  and  the  Big 
Canoe  are  at  times  a  little  strained,  and  in  bad 
humours  doubtless  they  would  send  it  to  the  bottom 
if  they  dared.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  this 
whole  region  is  as  yet  altogether  beyond  the  limits, 
and  almost  beyond  the  knowledge,  of  civilisation,  and 


40  THE  EAST  AFRICAN  LAKE  COUNTRY 


few  white  men  have  ever  been  in  the  country,  except 
the  few  agents  connected  with  the  Lakes  Company 
and  the  Missions.  Beyond  an  occasional  barter  of 
cloth  or  beads  for  firewood  and  food,  the  Ilala  has 
no  dealings  with  the  tribes  on  the  Upper  Shire,  and 
at  present  they  are  about  as  much  affected  by  the 
passing  to  and  fro  of  the  white  man's  steamer  as  are 
the  inhabitants  of  Kensington  by  an  occasional  wild- 
fowl making  for  Regent's  Park.  One  is  apt  to  con- 
clude, from  the  mere  presence  of  such  a  thing  as  a 
steamer  in  Central  Africa,  that  the  country  through 
which  it  is  passing  must  be  in  some  sense  civilised, 
and  the  hourly  reminders  to  the  contrary  which  one 
receives  on  the  spot  are  among  the  most  startling 
experiences  of  the  traveller.  It  is  almost  impossible 
for  him  to  believe,  as  he  watches  the  native  life  from 
the  cabin  of  the  Ilala,  that  these  people  are  altogether 
uncivilised  ;  just  as  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  believe 
that  that  lurch  a  moment  ago  was  caused  by  the 
little  craft  bumping  against  a  submerged  hippopo- 
tamus. A  steel  ship,  London  built,  steaming  six 
knots  ahead  ;  and  grass  huts,  nude  natives,  and  a 
hippopotamus — the  ideas  refuse  to  assort  themselves, 
and  one  lives  in  a  perpetual  state  of  bewilderment 
and  interrogation. 

It  was  a  brilliant  summer  morning  when  the  Ilala 


LAKES  SHIR  W A  AND  NYASSA 


41 


steamed  into  Lake  Nyassa,  and  in  a  few  hours  we 
were  at  anchor  in  the  Httle  bay  at  Livingstonia. 
My  first  impressions  of  this  famous  mission-station 
certainly  will  never  be  forgotten.  Magnificent 
mountains  of  granite,  green  to  the  summit  with 
forest,  encircled  it,  and  on  the  silver  sand  of  a  still 
smaller  bay  stood  the  small  row  of  trim  white  cottages. 
A  neat  path  through  a  small  garden  led  up  to  the 
settlement,  and  I  approached  the  largest  house  and 
entered.  It  was  the  Livingstonia  manse — the  head 
missionary's  house.  It  was  spotlessly  clean  ;  English 
furniture  was  in  the  room,  a  medicine  chest,  familiar- 
looking  dishes  were  in  the  cupboards,  books  lying 
about,  but  there  was  no  missionary  in  it.  I  went  to 
the  next  house — it  was  the  school,  the  benches  were 
there  and  the  blackboard,  but  there  were  no  scholars 
and  no  teacher.  I  passed  to  the  next,  it  was  the 
blacksmith's  shop  ;  there  were  the  tools  and  the 
anvil,  but  there  was  no  blacksmith.  And  so  on  to 
the  next,  and  the  next,  all  in  perfect  order,  and  all 
empty.  Then  a  native  approached  and  led  me  a  few 
yards  into  the  forest.  And  there  among  the  mimosa 
trees,  under  a  huge  granite  mountain,  were  four  or 
five  graves.    These  were  the  missionaries. 

I  spent  a  day  or  two  in  the  solemn  shadow  of 
that  deserted  manse.     It  is  one  of  the  loveliest  spots 


42 


THE  EAST  AFRICAN  LAKE  COUNTRY 


in  the  world  ;  and  it  was  hard  to  believe,  sitting 
under  the  tamarind  trees  by  the  quiet  lake  shore, 
that  the  pestilence  which  wasteth  at  midnight  had 
made  this  beautiful  spot  its  home.  A  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  north,  on  the  same  lake-coast,  the  remnant 
of  the  missionaries  have  begun  their  task  again,  and 
there,  slowly,  against  fearful  odds,  they  are  carrying 
on  their  work.  Travellers  have  been  pleased  to  say 
unkind  things  of  missionaries.  That  they  are  some- 
times right,  I  will  not  question.  But  I  will  say  of 
the  Livingstonia  missionaries,  and  of  the  Blantyre 
missionaries,  and  count  it  an  honour  to  say  it,  that 
they  are  brave,  efficient,  single-hearted  men,  who 
need  our  sympathy  more  than  we  know,  and  are 
equally  above  our  criticism  and  our  praise. 

Malarial  fever  is  the  one  sad  certainty  which  every 
African  traveller  must  face.  For  months  he  may 
escape,  but  its  finger  is  upon  him,  and  well  for  him 
if  he  has  a  friend  near  when  it  finally  overtakes  him. 
It  is  preceded  for  weeks,  or  even  for  a  month  or  two, 
by  unaccountable  irritability,  depression,  and  weari- 
ness. On  the  march  with  his  men  he  has  scarcely 
started  when  he  sighs  for  the  noon-day  rest.  Putting 
it  down  to  mere  laziness,  he  goads  himself  on  by 
draughts  from  the  water-bottle,  and  totters  forward  a 
mile  or  two  more.     Next  he  finds  himself  skulking 


LAKES  SHIRWA  AND  NY  ASS  A 


43 


into  the  forest  on  the  pretext  of  looking  at  a  speci- 
men, and,  when  his  porters  are  out  of  sight,  throws 
himself  under  a  tree  in  utter  limpness  and  despair. 
Roused  by  mere  shame,  he  staggers  along  the  trail, 
and  as  he  nears  the  mid-day  camp  puts  on  a  spurt 
to  conceal  his  defeat,  which  finishes  him  for  the  rest 
of  the  day.  This  is  a  good  place  for  specimens  he 
tells  the  men — the  tent  may  be  pitched  for  the  night. 
This  goes  on  day  after  day  till  the  crash  comes — 
first  cold  and  pain,  then  heat  and  pain,  then  every 
kind  of  pain,  and  every  degree  of  heat,  then  delirium, 
then  the  life- and -death  struggle.  He  rises,  if  he 
does  rise,  a  shadow  ;  and  slowly  accumulates  strength 
for  the  next  attack,  which  he  knows  too  well  will 
not  disappoint  him.  No  one  has  ever  yet  got  to 
the  bottom  of  African  fever.  Its  geographical  dis- 
tribution is  still  unmapped,  but  generally  it  prevails 
over  the  whole  east  and  west  coasts  within  the 
tropical  limit,  along  all  the  river- courses,  on  the 
shores  of  the  inland  lakes,  and  in  all  low-lying  and 
marshy  districts.  The  higher  plateaux,  presumably, 
are  comparatively  free  from  it,  but  in  order  to  reach 
these,  malarious  districts  of  greater  or  smaller  area 
have  to  be  traversed.  There  the  system  becomes 
saturated  with  fever,  which  often  develops  long  after 
the  infected  region  is  left  behind.     The  known  facts 


44 


THE  EAST  AFRICAN  LAKE  COUNTRY 


with  regard  to  African  fever  are  these  :  First,  it  is 
connected  in  some  way  with  drying-up  water  and 
decaying  vegetation,  though  how  the  germs  develop, 
or  what  they  are,  is  unknown.  Second,  natives 
suffer  from  fever  equally  with  Europeans,  and  this 
more  particularly  in  changing  from  district  to  district 
and  from  altitude  to  altitude.  Thus,  in  marching 
over  the  Tanganyika  plateau,  four  or  five  of  my 
native  carriers  were  down  with  fever,  although  their 
homes  were  only  two  or  three  hundred  miles  off, 
before  I  had  even  a  touch  of  it.  Third,  quinine  is 
the  great  and  almost  the  sole  remedy  ;  and  fourth, 
no  European  ever  escapes  it. 

The  really  appalling  mortality  of  Europeans  is  a 
fact  with  which  all  who  have  any  idea  of  casting  in 
their  lot  with  Africa  should  seriously  reckon.  None 
but  those  who  have  been  on  the  spot,  or  have  fol- 
lowed closely  the  inner  history  of  African  exploration 
and  missionary  work,  can  appreciate  the  gravity  of 
the  situation.  The  malaria  spares  no  man  ;  the 
strong  fall  as  the  weak  ;  no  number  of  precautions 
can  provide  against  it  ;  no  kind  of  care  can  do  more 
than  make  the  attacks  less  frequent  ;  no  prediction 
can  be  made  beforehand  as  to  which  regions  are 
haunted  by  it  and  which  are  safe.  It  is  not  the 
least  ghastly  feature  of  this  invisible  plague  that  the 


LAKES  SHIRWA  AND  NYASSA 


45 


only  known  scientific  test  for  it  at  present  is  a 
human  life.  That  test  has  been  applied  in  the 
Congo  region  already  with  a  recklessness  which  the 
sober  judgment  can  only  characterise  as  criminal. 
It  is  a  small  matter  that  men  should  throw  away 
their  lives,  in  hundreds  if  need  be,  for  a  holy  cause  ; 
but  it  is  not  a  small  matter  that  man  after  man,  in 
long  and  in  fatal  succession,  should  seek  to  overleap 
what  is  plainly  a  barrier  of  Nature.  And  science  has 
a  duty  in  pointing  out  that  no  devotion  or  enthusiasm 
can  give  any  man  a  charmed  life,  and  that  those  who 
work  for  the  highest  ends  will  best  attain  them  in 
humble  obedience  to  the  common  laws.  Transcend- 
entally,  this  may  be  denied  ;  the  warning  finger  may 
be  despised  as  the  hand  of  the  coward  and  the 
profane.  But  the  fact  remains — the  fact  of  an 
awful  chain  of  English  graves  stretching  across 
Africa.  This  is  not  spoken,  nevertheless,  to  dis- 
courage missionary  enterprise.  It  is  only  said  to 
regulate  it. 

To  the  head  of  Lake  Nyassa  in  a  little  steam 
yacht  is  quite  a  sea-voyage.  What  with  heavy  seas, 
and  head-winds,  and  stopping  to  wood,  and  lying-to 
at  nights,  it  takes  longer  time  than  going  from 
England  to  America.  The  lake  is  begirt  with 
mountains,  and   storms  are  so   incessant   and  so 


46 


THE  EAST  AFRICAN  LAKE  COUNTRY 


furious  that  Livingstone  actually  christened  Nyassa 
the  Lake  of  Storms."  The  motion  on  anchoring 
at  night  was  generally  so  unpleasant  that  one  pre- 
ferred then  to  be  set  on  shore.  My  men — for  I  had 
already  begun  to  pick  up  my  caravan  wherever  I 
could  find  a  native  willing  to  go — would  kindle  fires 
all  round  to  keep  off  beasts  of  prey,  and  we  slept  in 
peace  upon  the  soft  lake  sand. 

Instead  of  being  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  long, 
as  first  supposed,  Lake  Nyassa  is  now  known  to  have 
a  length  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  and  a 
breadth  varying  from  sixteen  to  sixty  miles.  It 
occupies  a  gigantic  trough  of  granite  and  gneiss,  the 
profoundly  deep  water  standing  at  a  level  of  sixteen 
hundred  feet  above  the  sea,  with  the  mountains  rising 
all  around  it,  and  sometimes  sheer  above  it,  to  a 
height  of  one,  two,  three,  and  four  thousand  feet. 
The  mountains  along  the  west  coast  form  an  almost 
unbroken  chain,  while  the  north-east  and  north  are 
enclosed  by  the  vast  range  of  the  Livingstone 
Mountains.  The  anchorages  on  the  lake  are  neither 
so  numerous  nor  so  sheltered  as  might  be  wished, 
but  the  Ilala  has  picked  out  some  fair  harbours  on 
the  west  coast,  and  about  half  as  many  are  already 
known  on  the  east. 

I  only  visited  one  native  village  on  the  lake,  and 


LAKES  SHIRWA  AND  NY  ASS  A 


47 


I  should  hope  there  are  none  others  Hke  it — indeed 
it  was  quite  exceptional  for  Africa.  I  tumbled  into 
it  early  one  morning,  out  of  the  Ilalds  dingy,  and 
lost  myself  at  once  in  an  endless  labyrinth  of  reek- 
ing huts.  Its  filth  was  indescribable,  and  I  met 
stricken  men,  at  the  acute  stage  of  smallpox, 
wandering  about  the  place  at  every  turn,  as  if  infec- 
tion were  a  thing  unknown.  The  chief  is  the  great- 
est slaver  and  the  worst  villain  on  the  lake,  and 
impaled  upon  poles  all  round  his  lodge,  their  ghastly 
faces  shrivelling  in  the  sun,  I  counted  forty  human 
heads. 

This  village  was  not  African,  however.  It  was 
Arab.  The  native  villages  on  Nyassa  are  rarely  so 
large,  seldom  so  compact,  and  never  so  dirty.  Every- 
where they  straggle  along  the  shore  and  through  the 
forest,  and  altogether  there  must  be  many  hun- 
dreds of  them  scattered  about  the  lake.  On  the 
western  shore  alone  there  are  at  least  fifteen  different 
tribes,  speaking  as  many  different  languages,  and 
each  of  them  with  dialects  innumerable. 

The  bright  spot  on  Lake  Nyassa  is  Bandawe, 
the  present  headquarters  of  the  Scotch  Livingstonia 
Mission.  The  phrase  "  headquarters  of  a  mission  " 
suggests  to  the  home  Christian  a  street  and  a  square, 
with  its  overshadowing  church  ;  a  decent  graveyard  ; 


48  THE  EAST  AFRICAN  LAKE  COUNTRY 


and  a  reverent  community  in  its  Sunday  clothes. 
But  Bandawe  is  only  a  lodge  or  two  in  a  vast 
wilderness,  and  the  swarthy  worshippers  flock  to  the 
seatless  chapel  on  M'lunga's  day  dressed  mostly  in 
bows  and  arrows.  The  said  chapel,  nevertheless, 
is  as  great  an  achievement  in  its  way  as  Cologne 
Cathedral,  and  its  worshippers  are  quite  as  much 
interested,  and  some  of  them  at  least  to  quite  as 
much  purpose.  In  reality  no  words  can  be  a  fit 
witness  here  to  the  impression  made  by  Dr.  Laws, 
Mrs.  Laws,  and  their  few  helpers,  upon  this  singular 
and  apparently  intractable  material.  A  visit  to  Ban- 
dawe is  a  great  moral  lesson.  And  I  cherish  no 
more  sacred  memory  of  my  life  than  that  of  a  com- 
munion service  in  the  little  Bandawe  chapel,  when 
the  sacramental  cup  was  handed  to  me  by  the  bare 
black  arm  of  a  native  communicant — a  communi- 
cant whose  life,  tested  afterwards  in  many  an  hour  of 
trial  with  me  on  the  Tanganyika  plateau,  gave  him 
perhaps  a  better  right  to  be  there  than  any  of  us. 


Ill 

THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 

THE  COUNTRY  AND  ITS  PEOPLE 


E 


Ill 


THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 
THE  COUNTRY  AND  ITS  PEOPLE 

TT  y^E  are  now  far  enough  into  the  interior  to 
^  ^  form  some  general  idea  of  the  aspect  of  the 
heart  of  Africa.  I  shall  not  attempt  to  picture  any 
particular  spot.  The  description  about  to  be  given 
applies  generally  to  Shirwa,  the  Shire  Highlands, 
Nyassa,  and  the  Nyassa  -  Tanganyika  plateau  — 
regions  which  together  make  up  one  of  the  great 
lobes  of  the  heart  of  Africa. 

Nothing  could  more  wildly  misrepresent  the 
reality  than  the  idea  of  one's  school  days  that  the 
heart  of  Africa  is  a  desert.  Africa  rises  from  its 
three  environing  oceans  in  three  great  tiers,  and  the 
general  physical  geography  of  these  has  been  already 
sketched- — first,  a  coast-line,  low  and  deadly  ;  farther 
in,  a  plateau  the  height  of  the  Scottish  Grampians  ; 
farther  in  still,  a  higher  plateau,  covering  the  country 


52 


THE  HEAR  J  OF  AFRICA 


for  thousands  of  miles  with  mountain  and  valley. 
Now  fill  in  this  sketch,  and  you  have  Africa  before 
you.  Cover  the  coast  belt  with  rank  j^ellow  grass, 
dot  here  and  there  a  palm  ;  scatter  through  it  a  few 
demoralised  villages  ;  and  stock  it  with  the  leopard, 
the  hyena,  the  crocodile,  and  the  hippopotamus. 
Clothe  the  mountainous  plateaux  next — both  of 
them — with  endless  forest, — not  grand  umbrageous 
forest  like  the  forests  of  South  America,  nor  matted 
jungle  like  the  forests  of  India,  but  with  thin,  rather 
weak  forest, — with  forest  of  low  trees,  whose  half- 
grown  trunks  and  scanty  leaves  offer  no  shade  from 
the  tropical  sun.  Nor  is  there  anything  in  these  trees 
to  the  casual  eye  to  remind  you  that  you  are  in  the 
tropics.  Here  and  there  one  comes  upon  a  borassus 
or  fan-palm,  a  candelabra-like  euphorbia,  a  mimosa 
aflame  with  colour,  or  a  sepulchral  baobab.  A  close 
inspection  also  will  discover  curious  creepers  and 
climbers  ;  and  among  the  branches  strange  orchids 
hide  their  eccentric  flowers.  But  the  outward  type 
of  tree  is  the  same  as  we  have  at  home — trees 
resembling  the  ash,  the  beech,  and  the  elm,  only 
seldom  so  large,  except  by  the  streams,  and  never 
so  beautiful.^     Day  after  day  you   may  wander 

1  The  more  important  of  these  trees  are — Napaca  Kirkii^ 
Brachystegia  longifolia^   Vitex  wnbrosa^  Erythrina  speciosa^ 


THE  COUNTRY  AND  ITS  PEOPLE  53 


through  these  forests  with  nothing  except  the  climate 
to  remind  you  where  you  are.  The  beasts,  to  be 
sure,  are  different,  but  unless  you  watch  for  them 
you  will  seldom  see  any ;  the  birds  are  different,  but 
you  rarely  hear  them  ;  and  as  for  the  rocks,  they  are 
our  own  familiar  gneisses  and  granites,  with  honest 
basalt-dykes  boring  through  them,  and  leopard-skin 
lichens  staining  their  weathered  sides.  Thousands 
and  thousands  of  miles,  then,  of  vast  thin  forest, 
shadeless,  trackless,  voiceless — forest  in  mountain 
and  forest  in  plain — this  is  East  Central  Africa. 

The  indiscriminate  praise  formerly  lavished  on 
tropical  vegetation  has  received  many  shocks  from 
recent  travellers.  In  Kaffirland,  South  Africa,  I  have 
seen  one  or  two  forests  fine  enough  to  justify  the  en- 
thusiasm of  armchair  word-painters  of  the  tropics ;  but 
so  far  as  the  central  plateau  is  concerned,  the  careful 
judgment  of  Mr.  Alfred  Russel  Wallace  respecting  the 
equatorial  belt  in  general — a  judgment  which  has  at 
once  sobered  all  modern  descriptions  of  tropical  lands, 
and  made  imaginative  people  more  content  to  stay  at 
home — applies  almost  to  this  whole  area.  The  fairy 
labyrinth  of  ferns  and  palms,  the  festoons  of  climbing 
plants  blocking  the  paths  and  scenting  the  forests 

Ficus  sycamorus^  Khaya  Senegal e7isis^  Nuxia  congesta^  Pari- 
narhim  inobola^  and  E?ythrophla'U7n  guineensis. 


54 


THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 


with  their  resplendent  flowers,  the  gorgeous  clouds  of 
insects,  the  gaily-plumaged  birds,  the  paroquets,  the 
monkey  swinging  from  his  trapeze  in  the  shaded 
bowers — these  are  unknown  to  Africa.  Once  a 
week  you  will  see  a  palm  ;  once  in  three  months  the 
monkey  will  cross  your  path  ;  the  flowers  on  the 
whole  are  few  ;  the  trees  are  poor  ;  and  to  be  honest, 
though  the  endless  forest -clad  mountains  have  a 
sublimity  of  their  own,  and  though  there  are  tropical 
bits  along  some  of  the  mountain-streams  of  exquisite 
beauty,  nowhere  is  there  anything  in  grace  and 
sweetness  and  strength  to  compare  with  a  Highland 
glen.  For  the  most  part  of  the  year  these  forests 
are  jaded  and  sun-stricken,  carpeted  with  no  moss  or 
alchemylla  or  scented  woodruff,  the  bare  trunks  fres- 
coed with  few  lichens,  their  motionless  and  unre- 
freshed  leaves  drooping  sullenly  from  their  sapless 
boughs.  Flowers  there  are,  small  and  great,  in  end- 
less variety  ;  but  there  is  no  display  of  flowers,  no 
gorgeous  show  of  blossom  in  the  mass,  as  when  the 
blazing  gorse  and  heather  bloom  at  home.  The 
dazzling  glare  of  the  sun  in  the  torrid  zone  has  per- 
haps something  to  do  with  this  want  of  colour-effect 
in  tropical  nature  ;  for  there  is  always  about  ten 
minutes  just  after  sunset,  when  the  whole  tone  of  the 
landscape  changes  like  magic,  and  a  singular  beauty 


THE  COUNTRY  AND  ITS  PEOPLE 


55 


steals  over  the  scene.  This  is  the  sweetest  moment 
of  the  African  day,  and  night  hides  only  too  swiftly 
the  homelike  softness  and  repose  so  strangely  grateful 
to  the  over-stimulated  eye. 

Hidden  away  in  these  endless  forests,  like  birds' 
nests  in  a  wood,  in  terror  of  one  another,  and  of 
their  common  foe,  the  slaver,  are  small  native 
villages ;  and  here  in  his  virgin  simplicity  dwells 
primeval  man,  without  clothes,  without  civilisation, 
without  learning,  without  religion — the  genuine  child 
of  nature,  thoughtless,  careless,  and  contented.  This 
man  is  apparently  quite  happy  ;  he  has  practically 
no  wants.  One  stick,  pointed,  makes  him  a  spear  ; 
two  sticks  rubbed  together  make  him  a  fire  ;  fifty 
sticks  tied  together  make  him  a  house.  The  bark 
he  peels  from  them  makes  his  clothes  ;  the  fruits 
which  hang  on  them  form  his  food.  It  is  perfectly 
astonishing  when  one  thinks  of  it  what  nature  can 
do  for  the  animal-man,  to  see  with  what  small  capital 
after  all  a  human  being  can  get  through  the  world. 
I  once  saw  an  African  buried.  According  to  the 
custom  of  his  tribe,  his  entire  earthly  possessions — 
and  he  was  an  average  commoner — were  buried  with 
him.  Into  the  grave,  after  the  body,  was  lowered 
the  dead  man's  pipe,  then  a  rough  knife,  then  a  mud 
bowl,  and  last  his  bow  and  arrows  — -the  bowstring 


56 


THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 


cut  through  the  middle,  a  touching  symbol  that  its 
work  was  done.  This  was  all.  Four  items,  as  an 
auctioneer  would  say,  were  the  whole  belongings  for 
half  a  century  of  this  human  being. ;  No  man  knows 
what  a  man  is  till  he  has  seen  what  a  man  can  be 
without,  and  be  withal  a  man.  That  is  to  say,  no 
man  knows  how  great  man  is  till  he  has  seen  how 
small  he  has  been  once. 

The  African  is  often  blamed  for  being  lazy,  but 
it  is  a  misuse  of  words.  He  does  not  need  to  work  ; 
with  so  bountiful  a  nature  round  him  it  would  be 
gratuitous  to  work.  And  his  indolence,  therefore,  as 
it  is  called,  is  just  as  much  a  part  of  himself  as  his 
flat  nose,  and  as  little  blameworthy  as  slowness  in 
a  tortoise.  The  fact  is,  Africa  is  a  nation  of  the 
unemployed. 

This  completeness,  however,  will  be  a  sad  draw- 
back to  development.  Already  it  is  found  difficult 
to  create  new  wants  ;  and  when  labour  is  required, 
and  you  have  already  paid  your  man  a  yard  of  calico 
and  a  string  of  beads,  you  have  nothing  in  your 
possession  to  bribe  him  to  another  hand's  turn. 
Nothing  almost  that  you  have  would  be  the  slightest 
use  to  him.  Among  the  presents  which  I  took  for 
chiefs,  I  was  innocent  enough  to  include  a  watch.  1 
might  as  well  have  taken  a  grand   piano.  For 


THE  COUNTRY  AND  ITS  PEOPLE 


57 


months  I  never  looked  at  my  own  watch  in  that 
land  of  sunshine.  Besides,  the  mere  idea  of  time  has 
scarcely  yet  penetrated  the  African  mind,  and  forms 
no  element  whatever  in  his  calculations.  I  wanted 
on  one  occasion  to  catch  the  little  steamer  on  the 
Shire,  and  pleaded  this  as  an  excuse  to  a  rather 
powerful  chief,  whom  it  would  have  been  dangerous 
to  quarrel  with,  and  who  would  not  let  me  leave  his 
village.  The  man  merely  stared.  The  idea  of  any 
one  being  in  a  hurry  was  not  only  preposterous  but 
inconceivable,  and  I  might  as  well  have  urged  as 
my  reason  for  wishing  away  that  the  angles  of  a 
triangle  are  equal  to  two  right  angles. 

This  difference  in  ideas  is  the  real  obstacle  to 
African  travelling,  and  it  raises  all  sorts  of  problems 
in  one's  mind  as  to  the  nature  of  ideas  themselves. 
I  often  wished  I  could  get  inside  an  African  for  an 
afternoon,  and  just  see  how  he  looked  at  things  ;  for 
I  am  sure  our  worlds  are  as  different  as  the  colour  of 
our  skins. 

Talking  of  skins,  I  may  observe  in  passing  that 
the  highland  African  is  not  a  negro,  nor  is  his  skin 
black.  It  is  a  deep  full-toned  brown,  something  like 
the  colour  of  a  good  cigar.  The  whole  surface  is 
diced  with  a  delicate  pattern,  which  gives  it  great 
richness  and  beauty,  and  I  often  thought  how  effect- 


58 


THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 


ive  a  row  of  books  would  be  bound  in  native- 
morocco. 

No  one  knows  exactly  who  these  people  are. 
They  belong,  of  course,  to  the  great  Bantu  race  ;  but 
their  origin  is  obscure,  their  tribal  boundaries  are 
unmapped,  even  their  names  are  unknown,  and  their 
languages — for  there  are  many — are  unintelligible. 
A  fine-looking  people,  quiet  and  domestic,  their  life- 
history  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave  is  of  the  utmost 
simplicity.  Too  ill  armed  to  hunt,  they  live  all  but 
exclusively  on  a  vegetable  diet.  A  small  part  of  the 
year  they  depend,  like  the  monkeys,  upon  wild  fruits 
and  herbs  ;  but  the  staple  food  is  a  small  tasteless 
millet-seed  which  they  grow  in  gardens,  crush  in  a 
mortar,  and  stir  with  water  into  a  thick  porridge. 
Twice  a  day,  nearly  all  the  year  round,  each  man  stuffs 
himself  with  this  coarse  and  tasteless  dough,  shovel- 
ling it  into  his  mouth  in  handfuls,  and  consuming 
at  a  sitting  a  pile  the  size  of  an  ant-heap.  His  one 
occupation  is  to  grow  this  millet,  and  his  gardening 
is  a  curiosity.  Selecting  a  spot  in  the  forest,  he 
climbs  a  tree,  and  with  a  small  home-made  axe  lops 
off  the  branches  one  by  one.  He  then  wades 
through  the  litter  to  the  next  tree,  and  hacks  it  to 
pieces  also,  leaving  the  trunk  standing  erect.  Upon 
all  the  trees  within  a  circle  of  thirty  or  forty  yards 


THE  COUNTRY  AND  ITS  PEOPLE  59 


diameter  his  axe  works  similar  havoc,  till  the  ground 
stands  breast-high  in  leaves  and  branches.  Next, 
the  whole  is  set  on  fire  and  burnt  to  ashes.  Then, 
when  the  first  rains  moisten  the  hard  ground  and 
wash  the  fertile  chemical  constituents  of  the  ash  into 
the  soil,  he  attacks  it  with  his  hoe,  drops  in  a  few 
handfuls  of  millet,  and  the  year's  work  is  over.  But 
a  few  weeks  off  and  on  are  required  for  these  opera- 
tions, and  he  may  then  go  to  sleep  till  the  rains  are 
over,  assured  of  a  crop  which  never  fails,  which  is 
never  poor,  and  which  will  last  him  till  the  rains 
return  again. 

Between  the  acts  he  does  nothing  but  lounge 
and  sleep  ;  his  wife,  or  wives,  are  the  millers  and 
bakers  ;  they  work  hard  to  prepare  his  food,  and  are 
rewarded  by  having  to  take  their  own  meals  apart, 
for  no  African  would  ever  demean  himself  by  eating 
with  a  woman.  I  have  tried  to  think  of  something 
else  that  these  people  habitually  do,  but  their  vacuous 
life  leaves  nothing  more  to  tell. 

Apart  from  eating,  their  sole  occupation  is  to 
talk,  and  this  they  do  unceasingly,  emphasising  their 
words  with  a  marvellous  wealth  of  gesticulation. 
Talking,  indeed,  is  an  art  here — the  art  it  must  once 
have  been  in  Europe  before  the  newspaper  drove 
it  out  of  fashion.    The  native  voices  are  sometimes 


6o 


THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 


highly  musical,  though  in  the  strict  sense  the  people 
have  no  notion  whatever  of  singing  ;  and  the  lan- 
guages themselves  are  full  of  melody.  Every  word, 
like  the  Italian,  ends  in  a  vowel,  and  when  well 
spoken  they  are  exceedingly  effective  and  full  of 
character. 

Notwithstanding  their  rudimentary  estate,  the 
people  of  Africa  have  the  beginnings  of  all  the  more 
characteristic  things  that  make  up  the  life  of  civilised 
man.  They  have  a  national  amusement,  the  dance  ; 
a  national  musical  instrument,  the  drum  ;  a  national 
drink,  pombe ;  a  national  religion,  the  fear  of  evil 
spirits.  Their  chamber  of  justice  is  a  council  of 
head-men  or  chiefs  ;  their  court  of  appeal  the  imiavi, 
or  poison-cup.  No  new  thing  is  found  here  that  is 
not  in  some  form  in  modern  civilisation  ;  no  new 
thing  in  civilisation  but  has  its  embryo  and  prophecy 
in  the  simpler  life  of  these  primitive  tribes.  To  the 
ignorant  these  men  are  animals  ;  but  the  eye  of 
evolution  looks  on  them  with  a  kindlier  and  more 
instructed  sense.  They  are  what  we  were  once ; 
possibly  they  may  become  what  we  are  now. 

What,  then,  is  to  become  of  this  strange  people 
and  their  land  ?  With  the  glowing  figures  of  a  very 
distinguished  traveller  in  our  minds,  are  we  to  expect 
that  the  Shire  and  Congo  routes  have  but  to  be  con- 


THE  COUNTRY  AND  ITS  PEOPLE 


6i 


nected  with  New  York  and  Manchester  to  cause  at 
once  a  revolution  among  the  people  of  Africa  and  in 
the  commerce  of  the  world  ?  We  hear  two  criticisms 
upon  that  subject.  One  complains  that  while  Mr. 
Stanley  emphasises  in  the  most  convincing  way  the 
thousands  of  miles  of  cloth  the  African  is  waiting  to 
receive  from  Europe,  he  is  all  but  silent  as  to  what 
Europe  is  to  get  in  return.  A  second  remark  is 
that  Africa  has  nothing  to  give  in  return,  and  never 
will  have. 

The  facts  of  the  case  briefly,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
are  these  : — 

First,  The  only  thing  of  value  the  interior  of 
Africa  produces  at  present  in  any  quantity  is  ivory. 
There  is  still,  undoubtedly,  a  supply  of  this  precious 
material  in  the  country — a  supply  which  may  last 
yet  for  fifteen  or  twenty  years.  But  it  is  well  to 
frame  future  calculation  on  the  certainty  of  this 
abnormal  source  of  wealth  ceasing,  as  it  must  do,  in 
the  immediate  future. 

Second,  Africa  already  produces  in  a  wild  state 
a  number  of  vegetable  and  other  products  of  con- 
siderable commercial  value  ;  and  although  the  soil 
can  only  be  said  to  be  of  average  fertility,  there  is 
practically  no  limit  to  the  extent  to  which  these 
could  be  developed. 


62 


THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 


Wild  indigo — the  true  indigofera  tinctoria — is 
already  growing  on  the  hills  of  the  interior.  The 
Londolphia,  an  indiarubber-bearing  creeper,  is  to 
be  seen  on  most  of  the  watercourses  ;  and  a  variety 
of  the  Fims  elastica,  the  well-known  rubber  plant, 
abounds  on  Lake  Nyassa.  The  orchilla  weed  is 
common.  The  castor-oil  plant,  ginger,  and  other 
spices,  the  tobacco-plant,  the  cotton-plant,  and  many 
fibre-yielding  grasses,  are  also  found  ;  and  oil-seeds 
of  every  variety  and  in  endless  quantity  are  grown 
by  the  natives  for  local  use. 

The  fatal  drawback,  meantime,  to  the  further 
development  of  these  comparatively  invaluable  pro- 
ducts is  the  transitj(^  carriage  to  the  coast  from  Nyassa 
or  Tanganyika  being  almost  prohibitive.  Up  till 
very  recently  only  two  native  products  have  ever 
been  exported  from  this  region — indiarubber  and 
beeswax,  and  these  in  but  trifling  quantity.  But 
there  is  no  reason  why  these  products  should  not  be 
largely  developed,  and  freights  must  become  lower 
and  lower  every  year.  In  addition  to  the  plants 
named,  the  soil  of  Central  Africa  is  undoubtedly 
adapted  for  growing  coffee  ;  and  the  Cinchona  would 
probably  flourish  well  on  the  higher  grounds  of  the 
Tanganyika  plateau. 

I  must  not  omit  to  mention  in  this  connection 


THE  COUNTRY  AND  ITS  PEOPLE 


63 


that  an  attempt  is  now  being  made,  and  so  far  with 
marked  success,  to  form  actual  plantations  in  the 
interior  of  Africa  ;  and  the  result  of  the  experiment 
ought  to  be  watched  with  exceptional  interest.  Mr. 
Moir,  on  behalf  of  the  African  Lakes  Company,  and 
the  Brothers  Buchanan  on  their  own  account,  and 
also  Mr.  Scott,  with  remarkable  industry  and  enter- 
prise have  each  formed  at  Blantyre  a  coffee  planta- 
tion of  considerable  size.  The  plants,  when  I  saw 
them,  were  still  young,  but  very  healthy  and  promis- 
ing, and  already  a  first  crop  of  fine  coffee-berries 
hung  from  the  trees,  and  has  since  been  marketed. 
These  same  gentlemen  have  also  grown  heavy  crops 
of  wheat  ;  and  Mr.  Buchanan  has  succeeded  well 
with  sugar-cane,  potatoes  and  other  English  vege- 
tables. The  manual  work  here  has  been  entirely 
done  by  natives  ;  and  an  immense  saving  to  resident 
Europeans  will  be  effected  when  the  interior  is  able 
to  provide  its  own  food  supplies,  for  at  present  wheat, 
coffee,  and  sugar,  have  all  to  be  imported  from  home. 

With  so  satisfactory  an  account  of  the  possibilities 
of  the  country,  the  only  question  that  remains  is  this 
— Can  the  African  native  really  be  taught  to  work  ? 

This  question  I  answer  unhesitatingly  in  the 
affirmative.  I  have  described  Africa  as  a  nation  of 
the  unemployed.     But  the  sole  reason  for  the  current 


64 


THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 


impression  that  the  African  is  an  incorrigible  idler  is 
that  at  present  there  is  really  nothing  for  him  to  do. 
But  that  he  can  work  and  will  work  when  the 
opportunity  and  inducement  offer  has  been  proved 
by  experiment.  The  coast  native,  as  all  must 
testify  who  have  seen  him  in  the  harbour  of  Zanzibar, 
Mozambique,  Delagoa  Bay,  Natal,  or  the  other  eastern 
ports,  is,  with  all  allowances,  a  splendid  worker  ;  and 
though  the  experiment  has  seldom  been  tried  in  the 
interior,  it  is  well  known  that  the  capacity  is  there, 
and  wherever  encouraged  yields  results  beyond  all 
expectation.  Probably  the  severest  test  to  which 
the  native  of  Central  Africa  has  ever  been  put  is  the 
construction  of  the  Stevenson  road,  between  Lakes 
Nyassa  and  Tanganyika.  Forty -six  miles  of  that 
road — probably  the  only  thing  of  the  kind  in  Central 
Africa — have  already  been  made  entirely  by  native 
labour,  and  the  work  could  not  have  been  better 
done  had  it  been  executed  by  English  navvies.  I 
have  watched  by  the  day  a  party  of  seventy  natives 
working  at  a  cutting  upon  that  road.  Till  three  or 
four  years  ago  none  of  them  had  ever  looked  upon 
a  white  man  ;  nor,  till  a  few  months  previously,  had 
one  of  them  seen  a  spade,  a  pickaxe,  or  a  crowbar. 
Yet  these  savages  handled  their  tools  to  such  purpose 
that,  with  only  a  single  European  superintendent,  they 


THE  COUNTRY  AND  ITS  PEOPLE 


65 


have  made  a  road,  full  of  difficult  cuttings  and 
gradients,  which  would  not  disgrace  a  railway  con- 
tractor at  home.  The  workmen  keep  regular  hours 
— six  in  the  morning  till  five  at  night,  with  a  rest  at 
mid-day — work  steadily,  continuously,  willingly,  and 
above  all,  merrily.  This  goes  on,  observe,  in  the  heart 
of  the  tropics,  almost  under  the  equator  itself,  where 
the  white  man's  energy  evaporates,  and  leaves  him 
so  limp  that  he  cannot  even  be  an  example  to  his 
men.  This  goes  on  too  without  any  compulsion ;  the 
natives  flock  from  far  and  near,  sometimes  from  long 
distances,  to  try  this  new  sensation  of  work.  These 
men  are  not  slaves,  but  volunteers ;  and  though 
they  are  paid  by  the  fortnight,  many  will  remain  at 
their  post  the  whole  season  through.  The  only  bribe 
for  all  this  work  is  a  yard  or  two  of  calico  per  week 
per  man  ;  so  that  it  seems  to  me  one  of  the  greatest 
problems  of  the  future  of  Africa  is  here  solved.  In 
capacity  the  African  is  fit  to  work,  in  inclination  he 
is  willing  to  work,  and  in  actual  experiment  he  has 
done  it ;  so  that  with  capital  enlisted  and  wise  heads 
to  direct  these  energies,  with  considerate  employers 
who  will  remember  that  these  men  are  but  children, 
this  vast  nation  of  the  unemployed  may  yet  be  added 
to  the  slowly  growing  list  of  the  world's  producers. 
Africa  at  this  moment  has  an  impossible  access,  a 
F 


66 


THE  HEART  OF  AFRICA 


perilous  climate,  a  penniless  people,  an  undeveloped 
soil.  So  once  had  England.  It  may  never  be  done  ; 
other  laws  may  operate,  unforeseen  factors  may  inter- 
fere ;  but  there  is  nothing  in  the  soil,  the  products, 
the  climate,  or  the  people  of  Africa  to  forbid  its 
joining  even  at  this  late  day  in  the  great  march  of 
civilisation. 


IV 

THE  HEART-DISEASE  OF  AFRICA 

ITS  PATHOLOGY  AND  CURE 


IV 


THE  HEART-DISEASE  OF  AFRICA 
ITS  PATHOLOGY  AND  CURE 

^HE  life  of  the  native  African  is  not  all  idyll.  It 


is  darkened  by  a  tragedy  whose  terrors  are 
unknown  to  any  other  people  under  heaven.  Of  its 
mild  domestic  slavery  I  do  not  speak,  nor  of  its 
revolting  witchcraft,  nor  of  its  endless  quarrels  and 
frequent  tribal  wars.  These  minor  evils  are  lost  in 
the  shadow  of  a  great  and  national  wrong.  Among 
these  simple  and  unprotected  tribes,  Arabs — uninvited 
strangers  of  another  race  and  nature — pour  in  from 
the  North  and  East,  with  the  deliberate  purpose  of 
making  this  paradise  a  hell.  It  seems  the  awful 
destiny  of  this  homeless  people  to  spend  their  lives 
in  breaking  up  the  homes  of  others.  Wherever  they 
go  in  Africa  the  followers  of  Islam  are  the  destroyers 
of  peace,  the  breakers  up  of  the  patriarchal  life,  the 
dissolvers  of  the  family  tie.     Already  they  hold  the 


70 


THE  HEART-DISEASE  OF  AFRICA 


whole  Continent  under  one  reign  of  terror.  They 
have  effected  this  in  virtue  of  one  thing  —  they 
possess  firearms  ;  and  they  do  it  for  one  object — 
ivory  and  slaves,  for  these  two  are  one.  The  slaves 
are  needed  to  buy  ivory  with  ;  then  more  slaves  have 
to  be  stolen  to  carry  it.  So  living  man  himself  has 
become  the  commercial  currency  of  Africa.  He  is 
locomotive,  he  is  easily  acquired,  he  is  immediately 
negotiable. 

Arab  encampments  for  carrying  on  a  wholesale 
trade  in  this  terrible  commodity  are  now  established 
all  over  the  heart  of  Africa.  They  are  usually  con- 
nected with  wealthy  Arab  traders  at  Zanzibar  and 
other  places  on  the  coast,  and  communication  is 
kept  up  by  caravans  which  pass,  at  long  intervals, 
from  one  to  the  other.  Being  always  large  and  well 
supplied  with  the  material  of  war,  these  caravans 
have  at  their  mercy  the  feeble  and  divided  native 
tribes  through  which  they  pass,  and  their  trail  across 
the  Continent  is  darkened  with  every  aggravation 
of  tyranny  and  crime.  They  come  upon  the  scene 
suddenly ;  they  stay  only  long  enough  to  secure 
their  end,  and  disappear  only  to  return  when  a  new 
crop  has  arisen  which  is  worth  the  reaping. 

Sometimes  these  Arab  traders  will  actually  settle 
for  a  year  or  two  in  the  heart  of  some  quiet  com- 


ITS  PATHOLOGY  AND  CURE 


71 


munity  in  the  remote  interior.  They  pretend  perfect 
friendship  ;  they  molest  no  one  ;  they  barter  honestly. 
They  plant  the  seeds  of  their  favourite  vegetables 
and  fruits — the  Arab  always  carries  seeds  with  him 
— as  if  they  meant  to  stay  for  ever.  Meantime  they 
buy  ivory,  tusk  after  tusk,  until  great  piles  of  it  are 
buried  beneath  their  huts  and  all  their  barter-goods 
are  gone.  Then  one  day,  suddenly,  the  inevitable 
quarrel  is  picked.  And  then  follows  a  wholesale 
massacre.  Enough  only  are  spared  from  the  slaughter 
to  carry  the  ivory  to  the  coast ;  the  grass-huts  of 
the  village  are  set  on  fire  ;  the  Arabs  strike  camp  ; 
and  the  slave-march,  worse  than  death,  begins. 

This  last  act  in  the  drama,  the  slave-march,  is 
the  aspect  of  slavery  which,  in  the  past,  has  chiefly 
aroused  the  passions  and  the  sympathy  of  the  outside 
world,  but  the  greater  evil  is  the  demoralisation  and 
disintegration  of  communities  by  which  it  is  neces- 
sarily preceded.  It  is  essential  to  the  traffic  that  the 
region  drained  by  the  slaver  should  be  kept  in  per- 
petual political  ferment  ;  that,  in  order  to  prevent 
combination,  chief  should  be  pitted  against  chief ; 
and  that  the  moment  any  tribe  threatened  to  assume 
a  dominating  strength  it  should  either  be  broken  up 
by  the  instigation  of  rebellion  among  its  dependencies, 
or  made  a  tool  of  at  their  expense.    The  inter-relation 


72 


THE  HEART-DISEASE  OF  AFRICA 


of  tribe  with  tribe  is  so  intricate  that  it  is  impossible 
to  exaggerate  the  effect  of  disturbing  the  equihbrium 
at  even  a  single  centre.  But,  like  a  river,  a  slave- 
caravan  has  to  be  fed  by  innumerable  tributaries  all 
along  its  course — at  first  in  order  to  gather  a  suffi- 
cient volume  of  human  bodies  for  the  start,  and 
afterwards  to  replace  the  frightful  loss  by  desertion, 
disablement,  and  death.  The  Slave-Map,  appended 
by  courteous  permission  of  Mr.  James  Stevenson, 
will  give  some  idea  of  the  extent  of  country  cursed 
and  blighted  to  keep  up  this  traffic. 

Many  at  home  imagine  that  the  death-knell  of 
slavery  was  struck  with  the  events  which  followed 
the  death  of  Livingstone.  In  the  great  explorer's 
time  we  heard  much  of  slavery ;  we  were  often 
appealed  to;  the  Government  busied  itself;  some- 
thing was  really  done.  But  the  wail  is  already  for- 
gotten, and  England  hears  little  now  of  the  open 
sore  of  the  world.  But  the  tragedy  I  have  alluded 
to  is  repeated  every  year  and  every  month — witness 
such  recent  atrocities  as  those  of  the  Upper  Congo, 
the  Kassai  and  Sankaru  region  described  by  Wiss- 
mann,  of  the  Welle- Inakua  district  referred  to  by 
Van  Gele.  It  was  but  yesterday  that  an  explorer, 
crossing  from  Lake  Nyassa  to  Lake  Tanganyika, 
saw  the  whole  southern  end  of  Tanganyika  peopled  . 


nS  FA  TIIOL  OGY  AND  C URE 


73 


with  large  and  prosperous  villages.  The  next  to 
follow  him  found  not  a  solitary  human  being — 
nothing  but  burned  homes  and  bleaching  skeletons. 
It  was  but  yesterday — the  close  of  1887 — that  the 
Arabs  at  the  north  end  of  Lake  Nyassa,  after 
destroying  fourteen  villages  with  many  of  their 
inhabitants,  pursued  the  population  of  one  village 
into  a  patch  of  tall  dry  grass,  set  it  on  fire,  sur- 
rounded it,  and  slew  with  the  bullet  and  the  spear 
those  who  crawled  out  from  the  more  merciful  flames. 
The  Wa-Nkonde  tribe,  to  which  these  people  be- 
longed, were,  until  this  event,  one  of  the  most  pros- 
perous tribes  in  East  Central  Africa.  They  occupied 
a  country  of  exceptional  fertility  and  beauty.  Three 
rivers,  which  never  failed  in  the  severest  drought, 
run  through  their  territory,  and  their  crops  were  the 
richest  and  most  varied  in  the  country.  They 
possessed  herds  of  cattle  and  goats  ;  they  fished  in 
the  lake  with  nets  ;  they  wrought  iron  into  many- 
patterned  spear- heads  with  exceptional  ingenuity 
and  skill  ;  and  that  even  artistic  taste  had  begun  to 
develop  among  them  was  evident  from  the  orna- 
mental work  upon  their  huts,  which  were  them- 
selves unique  in  Africa  for  clever  construction  and 
beauty  of  design.  This  people,  in  short,  by  their 
own  inherent  ability  and  the  natural  resources  of 


74 


THE  HEART-DISEASE  OF  AFRICA 


their  country,  were  on  the  high  road  to  civilisation. 
Now  mark  the  swift  stages  in  their  decline  and  fall. 
Years  ago  an  almost  unnoticed  rill  from  that  great 
Arab  stream,  which  with  noiseless  current  and  ever- 
changing  bed  has  never  ceased  to  flow  through 
Africa,  trickled  into  the  country.  At  first  the  Arab 
was  there  on  sufferance  ;  he  paid  his  way.  Land 
was  bought  from  the  Wa-Nkonde  chiefs,  and  their 
sovereignty  acknowledged.  The  Arab  force  grew. 
In  time  it  developed  into  a  powerful  incursion,  and 
the  Arabs  began  openly  to  assert  themselves.  One 
of  their  own  number  was  elevated  to  the  rulership, 
with  the  title  of  "  Sultan  of  Nkonde."  The  tension 
became  great,  and  finally  too  severe  to  last.  After 
innumerable  petty  fights  the  final  catastrophe  was 
hurried  on,  and  after  an  atrocious  carnage  the  rem- 
nant of  the  Wa-Nkonde  were  driven  from  their 
fatherland.  Such  is  the  very  last  chapter  in  the 
history  of  Arab  rule  in  Africa. 

The  Germans,  the  Belgians,  the  English,  and  the 
Portuguese,  are  crying  out  at  present  for  territory  in 
Central  Africa.  Meantime  humanity  is  crying  out 
for  some  one  to  administer  the  country  ;  for  some  one 
to  claim  it,  not  by  delimiting  a  frontier-line  upon  a 
map  with  coloured  crayons,  but  by  seeing  justice 
done  upon  the  spot ;  for  some  one  with  a  strong  arm 


ITS  PATHOLOGlf  AND  CURE 


75 


and  a  pitiful  heart  to  break  the  Arab  yoke  and  keep 
these  unprotected  children  free.  It  has  been  reserved 
for  a  small  company  of  English  gentlemen  to  arrest 
the  hand  of  the  raider  in  the  episode  I  have  just 
described.  While  Germany  covets  Nyassa-land, 
while  Portugal  claims  it,  while  England  has  sent  a 
consul  there,  zvitJwut  protection,  to  safeguard  British 
missionary  and  trading  interests,  two  agents  of  the 
African  Lakes  Company,  two  missionaries,  the 
British  Consul  at  Mozambique,  with  two  com- 
panions who  happened  to  be  in  Nyassa-land  on 
scientific  work,  have,  at  the  risk  of  their  lives, 
averted  further  war,  and  with  their  own  rifles 
avenged  the  crime. 

But  this  fortuitous  concourse  of  English  rifles 
cannot  be  reckoned  upon  every  day  ;  nor  is  it  the 
part  of  the  missionary  and  the  trader  to  play  the 
game  of  war.  The  one  thing  needed  for  Africa  at 
present  is  some  system  of  organised  protection  to 
the  native,  and  the  decisive  breaking  of  the  Arab 
influence  throughout  the  whole  interior.  These 
events  at  Lake  Nyassa  have  brought  this  subject 
once  more  before  the  civilised  world,  and  I  may 
briefly  state  the  situation  as  it  at  present  stands. 

Five  years  ago  the  British  cruisers  which  had 
been  for  years  engaged  in  suppressing  the  slave-trade 


76 


THE  HEART-DISEASE  OF  AFRICA 


were  tempted  to  relax  their  efforts.  They  had 
done  splendid  service.  The  very  sight  of  the  great 
hull  of  the  London^  as  she  rocked  in  the  harbour  of 
Zanzibar,  had  a  pacific  influence  ;  and  as  the  cara- 
vans from  the  interior  came  and  went  at  intervals  of 
years  and  found  the  cruisers'  cannon  still  pointing  to 
their  sultan's  palace,  they  carried  the  fear  of  England 
over  the  length  and  breadth  of  Africa.  The  slave- 
trade  was  seriously  discouraged,  and,  so  far  as  the 
coast  traffic  was  concerned,  it  was  all  but  completely 
arrested.  What  work,  up  to  this  point,  was  done, 
was  well  done  ;  but,  after  all,  only  half  the  task  had 
ever  been  attempted.  It  was  not  enough  to  stop 
the  sewer  at  its  mouth  ;  its  sources  in  the  heart  of 
Africa  should  have  been  sought  out  and  purified. 
But  now  that  even  the  menace  at  Zanzibar  no 
longer  threatened  the  slavers,  their  work  was  resumed 
with  redoubled  energy.  The  withdrawal  of  the 
London  was  interpreted  to  mean  either  that  England 
conceived  her  work  to  be  done  or  that  she  had 
grown  apathetic  and  would  interfere  no  more. 

The  consequences  were  almost  immediately  dis- 
astrous. A  new  license  to  devastate,  to  murder,  and 
to  enslave,  was  telegraphed  all  over  Africa,  and 
speedily  found  expression,  in  widely-separated  parts 
of  the  country,  in  horrors  the  details  of  which  can 


ITS  PATHOLOGY  AND  CURE 


77 


never  be  known  to  the  civilised  world.  The  dis- 
turbances on  Lake  Nyassa  undoubtedly  belong-, 
though  indirectly,  to  this  new  category  of  crime. 
Already  the  Arabs  have  learned  that  there  is  no  one 
now  to  take  them  to  task.  In  one  district  after 
another  they  have  played  their  game  and  won  ;  and 
with  ample  power,  with  absolute  immunity  from 
retribution,  and  with  the  sudden  creation  of  a  new 
demand  for  slaves  in  a  quarter  of  which  I  dare  not 
speak  further  here,  their  offences  can  only  increase  in 
number  and  audacity.  It  is  remarkable  in  the  Wa- 
Nkonde  episode  that,  for  the  first  time  probably  in 
Central  Africa,  the  Mohammedan  defiance  to  the 
Christian  power  was  open  and  undisguised.  Hitherto 
the  Arab  worked  in  secret.  The  mere  presence  of 
a  white  man  in  the  country  was  sufficient  to  stay  his 
hand.  On  this  occasion  the  Arab  not  only  did  not 
conceal  his  doings  from  the  Europeans,  nor  flee 
when  he  was  remonstrated  with,  but  turned  and 
attacked  his  monitors.  The  political  significance  of 
this  is  plain.  It  is  part  of  a  policy.  It  is  a  challenge 
to  Europe  from  the  whole  Mohammedan  power. 
Europe  in  Africa  is  divided  ;  Mohammedanism  is 
one.  No  isolated  band  of  Arabs  would  have  ven- 
tured upon  such  a  line  of  action  unless  they  were 
perfectly  sure  of  their  ground.     Nor  is  there  any 


78 


THE  HEART-DISEASE  OF  AFRICA 


reason  why  they  should  not  be  sure  of  their  ground. 
Europe  is  talking  much  about  Africa  ;  it  is  doing 
nothing.  This  the  Arab  has  discerned.  It  is  one 
of  the  most  astounding  facts  in  morals  that  England 
should  have  kept  the  Arab  at  bay  so  long.  But  the 
time  of  probation  is  over.  And  the  plain  issue  is 
now  before  the  world — Is  the  Arab  or  the  European 
henceforth  to  reign  in  Africa  ? 

How  the  European  could  reign  in  Africa  is  a 
simple  problem.  The  real  difficulty  is  as  to  who  in 
Europe  will  do  it.  Africa  is  claimed  by  everybody, 
and  it  belongs  to  nobody.  So  far  as  the  Nyassa 
region  is  concerned,  while  the  Portuguese  assert  their 
right  to  the  south  and  west,  scarcely  one  of  them  has 
ever  set  foot  in  it ;  and  while  the  Germans  claim  the 
north  and  east,  their  pretension  is  based  neither  upon 
right  of  discovery,  right  of  treaty,  right  of  purchase, 
right  of  conquest,  nor  right  of  possession,  but  on  the 
cool  audacity  of  some  chartographer  in  Berlin,  who, 
in  delimiting  a  tract  of  country  recognised  as  Ger- 
man by  the  London  Convention  of  1886,  allowed 
his  paint-brush  to  colour  some  tens  of  thousands  of 
square  miles  beyond  the  latitude  assigned.  To 
England  it  is  a  small  matter  politically  who  gets 
Africa.  But  it  is  of  moment  that  those  who  secure 
the  glory  of  annexation  should  not  evade  the  duty 


ITS  PATHOLOG\  AND  CURE 


79 


of  administration.  The  present  condition  of  Africa 
is  too  critical  to  permit  so  wholesale  a  system  of 
absentee  landlordism  ;  and  it  is  the  duty  of  England, 
so  far  at  least  as  the  Nyassa  region  is  concerned, 
to  insist  on  the  various  claimants  either  being  true 
to  their  assumed  responsibilities  or  abandoning  a 
nominal  sovereignty. 

It  is  well  known, — it  is  certain, — that  neither 
Portugal  nor  Germany  will  ever  administer  this 
region.  If  they  would,  the  problem  would  be  solved, 
and  England  would  gladly  welcome  the  release  ;  the 
release,  for,  although  England  has  never  aided  this 
country  with  a  force  of  arms,  she  has  for  some  time 
known  that  in  some  way,  direct  or  indirect,  she 
ought  to  do  it.  This  country  is  in  a  special  sense 
the  protege  of  England.  Since  Livingstone's  death 
the  burden  of  it  has  never  really  left  her  conscience. 
The  past  relation  of  England  to  Nyassa-land,  and 
her  duty  now,  will  be  apparent  from  the  following 
simple  facts  : — 

Lake  Nyassa  was  discovered  by  David  Living- 
stone. At  the  time  he  was  acting  as  Her  Majesty's 
Consul,  and  was  sent  to  Africa  with  a  Government 
Expedition,  which  was  equipped  not  to  perform  an 
exceptional  and  romantic  piece  of  work,  but  in 
accordance  with  a  settled  policy  on  the  part  of 


So 


THE  HEART-DISEASE  OF  AFRICA 


England.  "  The  main  object  of  the  Zambesi  Expe- 
dition," says  Livingstone,  "  as  our  instructions  from 
Her  Majesty's  Government  explicitly  stated,  was  to 
extend  the  knowledge  already  attained  of  the  geo- 
graphy, and  mineral  and  agricultural  resources,  of 
Eastern  and  Central  Africa;  to  improve  our  acquaint- 
ance with  the  inhabitants,  and  to  endeavour  to 
engage  them  to  apply  themselves  to  industrial 
pursuits,  and  to  the  cultivation  of  their  lands,  with  a 
view  to  the  production  of  raw  material  to  be  exported 
to  England  in  return  for  British  manufactures  ;  and 
it  was  hoped  that,  by  encouraging  the  natives  to 
occupy  themselves  in  the  development  of  the  resources 
of  the  country,  a  considerable  advance  might  be 
made  towards  the  extinction  of  the  slave-trade,  as 
they  would  not  be  long  in  discovering  that  the 
former  would  eventually  be  a  more  certain  source 
of  profit  than  the  latter.  The  Expedition  was  sent 
in  accordance  with  the  settled  policy  of  the  English 
Government ;  and  the  Earl  of  Clarendon  being  then 
at  the  head  of  the  Foreign  Office,  the  Mission  was 
organised  under  his  immediate  care.  When  a 
change  of  Government  ensued  we  experienced  the 
same  generous  countenance  and  sympathy  from  the 
Earl  of  Malmesbury  as  we  had  previously  received 
from  Lord  Clarendon  ;  and  on  the  accession  of  Earl 


ITS  PATHOLOGY  AND  CURE 


Si 


Russell  to  the  high  office  he  has  so  long  filled  we 
were  always  favoured  with  equally  ready  attention 
and  the  same  prompt  assistance.  Thus  the  conviction 
was  produced  that  our  work  embodied  the  principles 
not  of  any  one  party ^  but  of  the  hearts  of  the  statesmen 
and  of  the  people  of  England  generally!' 

Encouraged  by  this  national  interest  in  Africa, 
the  churches  of  England  and  Scotland  attempted  to 
follow  up  the  work  of  Livingstone  in  one  at  least  of 
its  aspects,  by  sending  missionaries  into  the  country. 
These  have  already  succeeded  in  establishing  them- 
selves in  one  district  after  another,  and  are  daily 
extending  in  numbers  and  influence. 

In  order  to  perpetuate  a  scarcely  less  important 
branch  of  the  movement  initiated  by  Livingstone, 
— a  department  specially  sanctioned,  as  the  above 
extract  shows,  by  the  English  Government — the 
African  Lakes  Company  was  formed  in  1878.  Its 
object  was  to  open  up  and  develop  the  regions  of 
East  Central  Africa  from  the  Zambesi  to  Tangan- 
yika ;  to  make  employments  for  the  native  peoples, 
to  trade  with  them  honestly,  to  keep  out  rum,  and, 
so  far  as  possible,  gunpowder  and  firearms,  and  to 
co-operate  and  strengthen  the  hands  of  the  mis- 
sionary. It  has  already  established  twelve  trading 
stations,  manned  by  a  staff  of  twenty-five  Europeans 

G 


S2  THE  HEART-DISEASE  OF  AFRICA 

and  many  native  agents.  The  Ilala  on  Lake  Nyassa 
belongs  to  it  ;  and  it  has  just  placed  a  new  steamer 
to  supersede  the  Lady  Nyassa  on  the  river  Shire. 
It  has  succeeded  in  starting  a  flourishing  coffee 
plantation  in  the  interior,  and  new  sources  of  wealth 
are  being  gradually  introduced.  For  the  first  time, 
on  the  large  scale,  it  has  taught  the  natives  the 
meaning  and  the  blessings  of  work.  It  has  acted, 
to  some  extent,  as  a  check  upon  the  slave-trade  ;  it 
has  prevented  inter-tribal  strife,  and  helped  to  protect 
the  missionaries  in  time  of  war.  The  African  Lakes 
Company,  in  short,  modest  as  is  the  scale  on  which 
it  works,  and  necessarily  limited  as  are  its  oppor- 
tunities, has  been  for  years  the  sole  administering 
hand  in  this  part  of  Africa.  This  Company  does 
not  exist  for  gain  ; — or  exists  for  gain  only  in  the 
sense  that  commercial  soundness  is  the  only  solid 
basis  on  which  to  build  up  an  institution  which  can 
permanently  benefit  others.  A  large  amount  of 
private  capital  has  been  expended  by  this  Company  ; 
yet,  during  all  the  years  it  has  carried  on  its  noble 
enterprise,  it  has  re-invested  in  Africa  all  that  it  has 
taken  from  it. 

All  this  British  capital,  all  the  capital  of  the 
Missions,  all  these  various  and  not  inconsiderable 
agencies,  have  been  tempted  into  Africa  largely  in 


ITS  PATHOLOGY  AXD  CURE 


83 


the  hope  that  the  old  policy  of  England  would  not 
only  be  continued  but  extended.  England  has  never 
in  theory  departed  from  the  position  she  assumed 
in  the  days  of  the  Zambesi  Expedition.  On  the 
contrary,  she  has  distinctly  recognised  the  relation 
between  her  Government  and  Africa.  She  has  con- 
tinued to  send  out  British  Consuls  to  be  the  succes- 
sors of  Livingstone  in  the  Nyassa  region.  When 
the  first  of  these,  Captain  Foote,  R.N.,  died  in  the 
Shire  Highlands  in  1884,  the  English  Government 
immediately  sent  another  to  take  his  place.  But 
this  is  the  last  thing  that  has  been  done.  The  Con- 
sul is  there  as  a  protest  that  England  has  still  her 
eye  on  Africa.  But  Africa  needs  more  than  an  eye. 
And  when,  as  happened  the  other  day,  one  of  Her 
Majesty's  representatives  was  under  Arab  fire  for 
five  days  and  nights  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Nyassa, 
this  was  brought  home  to  us  in  such  practical  fashion 
as  to  lead  to  the  hope  that  some  practical  measures 
will  now  be  taken. 

I  do  not  presume  to  bring  forward  a  formal  pro- 
posal ;  but  two  things  occur  to  one  as  feasible,  and 
I  shall  simply  name  them.  The  first  is  for  England, 
or  Germany,  or  France,  or  some  one  with  power  and 
earnestness,  to  take  a  firm  and  uncompromising 
stand  at  Zanzibar.     Zanzibar,  as  the  Arab  capital,  is 


84  THE  HEART-DISEASE  OF  AFRICA 


one  of  the  keys  of  the  situation,  and  any  lesson 
taught  here  would  be  learned  presently  by  the  whole 
Mohammedan  following  in  the  country. 

The  other  key  to  the  situation  is  the  vast  and 
splendid  water-way  in  the  heart  of  Africa — the 
Upper  Shire,  Lake  Nyassa,  Lake  Tanganyika,  and 
the  Great  Lakes  generally.  As  a  base  for  military 
or  patrol  operations  nothing  better  could  be  desired 
than  these  great  inland  seas.  A  small  steamer  upon 
each  of  them — or,  to  begin  with,  upon  Nyassa  and 
Tanganyika — with  an  associated  depot  or  two  of 
armed  men  on  the  higher  and  healthier  plateaux 
which  surround  them,  would  keep  the  whole  country 
quiet.  Only  a  trifling  force  of  well -drilled  men 
would  be  needed  for  this  purpose.  They  might  be 
whites,  or  blacks  and  whites  ;  they  might  be  Sikhs 
or  Pathans  from  India  ;  and  the  expense  is  not  to 
be  named  considering  the  magnitude  of  the  results 
— the  pacification  of  the  entire  equatorial  region — 
that  would  be  achieved.  That  expense  could  be 
borne  by  the  Missions,  but  it  is  not  their  province 
to  employ  the  use  of  force  ;  it  could  be  borne  by  the 
Lakes  Company,  only  they  deserve  protection  from 
others  rather  than  that  this  should  be  added  to  the 
large  debt  civilisation  already  owes  them  ;  it  could 
be  done  by  the  Free  Congo  State, — and  if  no  one 


ITS  PA  THOL OGY  AND  C URE 


85 


else  is  shamed  into  doing  it,  this  further  labour  of 
love  may  fall  into  its  hands.  But  whether  alone, 
or  in  co-operation  with  the  few  and  overburdened 
capitalists  of  the  country,  or  in  conjunction  with 
foreign  powers,  England  will  be  looked  to  to  take 
the  initiative  with  this  or  a  similar  scheme. 

The  barriers  in  the  way  of  Government  action 
are  only  two,  and  neither  is  insurmountable.  The 
one  is  Portugal,  which  owns  the  approaches  to  the 
country ;  the  other  is  Germany,  which  has  inland 
interests  of  her  own.  Whether  England  could  pro- 
ceed in  the  face  of  these  two  powers  would  simply 
depend  on  how  it  was  done.  As  a  mere  political 
move  such  an  occupation  of  the  interior  might  at 
once  excite  alarm  and  jealousy.  But  wearing  the 
aspect  of  a  serious  mission  for  the  good  of  Africa, 
instigated  not  by  the  Foreign  Office  but  by  the 
people  of  England,  it  is  impossible  to  believe  that 
the  step  could  either  be  misunderstood  or  opposed. 
It  is  time  the  nations  looked  upon  Africa  as  some- 
thing more  than  a  chessboard.  And  even  if  it  were 
but  a  chessboard,  the  players  on  every  hand  are  wise 
enough  to  know  that  whatever  is  honestly  done  to 
relieve  this  suffering  continent  will  react  in  a 
hundred  ways  upon  the  interests  of  all  who  hold 
territorial  rights  within  it. 


86 


THE  HEART-DISEASE  OF  AFRICA 


A  beginning  once  made,  one  might  not  be  unduly 
sanguine  in  anticipating  that  the  meshes  of  a  pacific 
and  civilising  influence  would  rapidly  spread  through- 
out the  country.  Already  the  missionaries  are 
pioneering  everywhere,  prepared  to  stay  and  do 
their  part  ;  and  asking  no  more  from  the  rest  of  the 
world  than  a  reasonable  guarantee  that  they  should 
be  allowed  to  live.  Already  the  trading  companies 
are  there,  from  every  nationality,  and  in  every 
direction  ready  to  open  up  the  country,  but  unable 
to  go  on  with  any  confidence  or  enthusiasm  till  their 
isolated  interests  are  linked  together  and  secured  in 
the  presence  of  a  common  foe.  The  territories  of  the 
various  colonies  are  slowly  converging  upon  the  heart 
of  Africa,  and  to  unite  them  in  an  informal  defensive 
alliance  would  not  be  impossible.  With  Emin  Pasha 
occupying  the  field  in  the  north  ;  with  the  African 
Lakes  Company,  the  British  East  African  Association, 
and  the  German  Association,  in  the  east ;  with  the 
Congo  Free  State  in  the  west,  and  British  Bechuana- 
land  in  the  south,  a  cordon  is  already  thrown  around 
the  Great  Lakes  region,  which  requires  only  to  have 
its  several  parts  connected  with  one  another  and 
with  central  forces  on  the  Lakes,  to  secure  the  peace 
of  Africa. 


V 

WANDERINGS  ON  THE  NYASSA- 
TANGANYIKA  PLATEAU 


A  TRAVELLER'S  DIARY 


V 


WANDERINGS  ON  THE  NYASSA- 
TANGANYIKA  PLATEAU 

A  TRAVELLER'S  DIARY 
riTH  a  glade  in  the  forest  for  a  study,  a  bale 


^  ^  of  calico  for  a  table,  and  the  sun  vertical 
and  something  under  a  billion  centigrade,  diary- 
writing  in  the  tropics  is  more  picturesque  than 
inspiring.  To  keep  a  journal,  however,  next  to 
keeping  his  scalp,  is  the  one  thing  for  which  the 
consistent  traveller  will  go  through  fire  and  water  ; 
and  the  dusky  native  who  carries  the  faded  note- 
books on  the  march  is  taught  to  regard  the  sacred- 
ness  of  his  office  more  than  if  he  drove  the  car  of 
Juggernaut.  The  contents  of  these  mysterious  note- 
books, nevertheless,  however  precious  to  those  who 
write  them,  are,  like  the  photographs  of  one's  rela- 
tions, of  pallid  interest  to  others,  and  I  have  there- 
fore conscientiously  denied  myself  the  joy  of  exhibit- 


90 


WANDERINGS  ON  THE 


ing  such  offspring  of  the  wilderness  as  I  possess  to 
my  confiding  reader. 

But  as  the  diary  form  has  advantages  of  its  own, 
I  make  no  apology  at  this  stage  for  transcribing  and 
editing  a  few  rough  pages.  Better,  perhaps,  than  by 
a  more  ordered  narrative,  they  may  help  others  to 
enter  into  the  traveller's  life,  and  to  illustrate  what 
the  African  traveller  sees  and  hears  and  does.  I 
shall  disregard  names,  and  consecutive  dates,  and 
routes.  My  object  is  simply  to  convey  some 
impression  of  how  the  world  wags  in  a  land 
unstirred  by  civilisation,  and  all  but  untouched  by 
time. 

29///  September. — Left  Karongas,  at  the  north 
end  of  Lake  Nyassa,  at  10.30,  with  a  mongrel 
retinue  of  seven  Mandalla  natives,  twelve  Bandawe 
Atongas,  six  Chingus,  and  my  three  faithfuls — Jingo, 
Moolu,  and  Seyid.  Total  twenty-eight.  Not  one 
of  my  men  could  speak  a  word  of  English.  They 
belonged  to  three  different  tribes  and  spoke  as  many 
languages  ;  the  majority,  however,  knew  something 
of  Chinanja,  the  lake  language,  of  which  I  had  also 
learned  a  little,  so  we  soon  understood  one  another. 
It  is  always  a  wise  arrangement  to  have  different 
tribes  in  a  caravan,  for  in  the  event  of  a  strike,  and 
there  are  always  strikes,  there  is  less  chance  of  con- 


91 


certed  action.  Each  man  carried  on  his  head  a 
portion  of  my  purse — which  in  this  region  consists 
solely  of  cloth  and  beads  ;  while  one  or  two  of  the 
more  dependable  were  honoured  with  the  trans- 
portation of  the  tent,  collecting-boxes,  provisions, 
and  guns. 

The  road  struck  into  a  banana  grove,  then 
through  a  flat  country  fairly  well  wooded  with  a 
variety  of  trees,  including  many  palms  and  a  few 
baobabs.  The  native  huts  dotted  over  this  rich 
flat  are  the  best  I  have  seen  in  Africa.  The  roofs 
are  trimly  thatched,  and  a  rude  carving  adorns  door- 
post and  lintel.  After  seven  miles  the  Rukuru  is 
crossed — a  fine  stream  rippling  over  the  sand,  with 
large  flakes  of  mica  tumbling  about  in  the  current, 
and  sampling  the  rocks  of  the  distant  hills.  The 
men  laid  down  their  loads,  and  sprawled  about  like 
crocodiles  in  the  water  as  I  waded  across.  A  few 
yards  off  is  a  village,  where  a  fire  was  quickly  lit, 
and  the  entire  population  turned  out  to  watch  the 
white  man  nibble  his  lunch.  The  consumption  at 
this  meal  being  somewhat  slight,  and  the  menu 
strange  to  my  audience,  I  saw  that  they  regarded 
the  white  man's  effort  at  nutrition  with  feelings  of 
contempt.  "  The  M'sungu  eats  nothing,"  whispered 
one,  "  he  must  die."    The  head  man  presently  came 


92 


WANDERINGS  ON  THE 


asking  beads  ;  but,  as  I  had  none  unpacked,  two 
stray  trinkets  and  a  spoonful  of  salt  more  than 
satisfied  him.  On  getting  the  salt  he  deftly  twisted 
a  leaf  into  a  little  bag,  and  after  pouring  all  the  salt 
into  it,  graciously  held  out  his  hand  to  a  troop  of 
small  boys  who  crowded  round,  and  received  one  lick 
each  of  his  empty  palm.  Salt  is  perhaps  the  great- 
est luxury  and  the  greatest  rarity  the  north -end 
African  can  have,  and  the  avidity  with  which  these 
young  rascals  received  their  homoeopathic  allowance 
proved  the  instinctiveness  of  the  want.  I  have  often 
offered  native  boys  the  choice  between  a  pinch  of 
salt  and  a  knot  of  sugar,  and  they  never  failed  to 
choose  the  first.  For  return-present  the  chief  made 
over  to  me  two  large  gourds  filled  with  curds,  of 
which,  of  course,  I  pretended  to  drink  deeply  before 
passing  it  on  to  the  men. 

Three  miles  of  the  same  country,  with  tall  bean- 
plants  about,  castor  oil,  and  maize,  but  no  villages 
in  sight.  Bananas  unusually  fine,  and  Borassus 
everywhere.  At  the  tenth  or  eleventh  mile  we 
reached  the  fringe  of  hills  bordering  the  higher 
lands,  and,  taking  advantage  of  a  passage  about 
half  a  mile  wide  which  has  been  cut  by  the  river, 
penetrated  the  first  barrier — a  low  rounded  hill  of 
conglomerate,  fine  in  texture,  and  of  a  dark -red 


N  YASSA  -  TANGANYIKA  PL  A  TEA  U 


93 


colour.  Flanking  this  for  two  miles,  we  entered  a 
broad  oval  expansion  among  the  hills,  the  site 
apparently  of  a  former  lake.  Winding  along  with 
the  river  for  a  mile  or  two  more,  and  passing  through 
a  narrow  and  romantic  glen,  we  emerged  in  a  second 
valley,  and  camped  for  the  night  on  the  banks  ot 
the  stream.  On  the  opposite  side  stood  a  few  native 
huts,  and  the  occupants,  after  much  reconnoitring, 
were  induced  to  exchange  some  tLja  and  sweet 
potatoes  for  a  little  cloth. 

\st  October. — Moolu  peered  into  my  tent  with 
the  streak  of  dawn  to  announce  a  catastrophe. 
Four  of  the  men  had  run  away  during  the  night. 
All  was  going  so  well  yesterday  that  I  flattered  my- 
self I  was  to  be  spared  this  traditional  experience — 
the  most  exasperating  of  all  the  traveller's  woes,  for 
the  whole  march  must  be  delayed  until  fresh  recruits 
are  enlisted  to  carry  the  deserters'  loads.  The 
delinquents  were  all  Bandawe  men.  They  had  no 
complaint.  They  stole  nothing.  It  was  a  simple 
case  of  want  of  pluck.  They  were  going  into  a 
strange  land.  The  rainy  season  was  coming  on. 
Their  loads  were  full-weight.  So  they  got  home- 
sick and  ran.  I  had  three  more  Bandawe  men  in 
the  caravan,  and,  knowing  well  that  the  moment 
they  heard  the  news  they  would  go  and  do  likewise. 


94 


WANDERINGS  ON  THE 


I  ordered  them  to  be  told  what  had  happened  and 
then  sent  to  my  tent.  In  a  few  moments  they 
appeared  ;  but  what  to  say  to  them  ?  Their  dialect 
was  quite  strange  to  me,  and  yet  I  felt  I  must 
impress  them  somehow.  Like  the  judge  putting  on 
the  black  cap,  I  drew  my  revolver  from  under  my 
pillow,  and,  laying  it  before  me,  proceeded  to  address 
them.  Beginning  with  a  few  general  remarks  on 
the  weather,  I  first  briefly  sketched  the  geology  of 
Africa,  and  then  broke  into  an  impassioned  defence 
of  the  British  Constitution.  The  three  miserable 
sinners — they  had  done  nothing  in  the  world — quaked 
like  aspens.  I  then  followed  up  my  advantage  by 
intoning,  in  a  voice  of  awful  solemnity,  the  enuncia- 
tion of  the  Forty-Seventh  Proposition  of  Euclid,  and 
then  threw  my  all  into  a  blood-curdling  Quod  erat 
demonstrandum.  Scene  two  followed  when  I  was 
alone  ;  I  turned  on  my  pillow  and  wept  for  shame. 
It  was  a  prodigious  piece  of  rascality,  but  I  cannot 
imagine  anything  else  that  would  have  done,  and  it 
succeeded  perfectly.  These  men  were  to  the  end  the 
most  faithful  I  had.  They  felt  thenceforth  they  owed 
me  their  lives  ;  for,  according  to  African  custom,  the 
sins  of  their  fellow-tribesmen  should  have  been  visited 
upon  them  with  the  penalty  of  death. 

Seyid  and  Moolu  scoured  the  country  at  once  for 


NVASSA- TANGANYIKA  FLA  TEA  U 


95 


more  carriers,  but  met  with  blank  refusals  on  every 
side.  Many  natives  passed  the  camp,  but  they 
seemed  in  unusual  haste  and  something  of  local 
importance  was  evidently  going  on.  We  were  not 
long  in  doubt  as  to  its  nature.  It  was  war.  The 
Angoni  were  in  force  behind  a  neighbouring  hill,  and 
had  already  killed  one  man.  This  might  have  been 
startling,  but  I  treated  it  as  a  piece  of  gossip,  until 
suddenly  a  long  string  of  armed  and  painted  men 
appeared  in  sight  and  rushed  past  me  at  the  double. 
They  kept  perfect  step,  running  in  single  file,  their 
feet  adorned  with  anklets  of  rude  bells  which  jingled 
in  time  and  formed  quite  a  martial  accompaniment. 
The  centre  man  held  aloft  a  small  red  and  white 
flag,  and  each  warrior  carried  a  large  shield  and 
several  light  barbed  spears.  The  regiment  was  led 
by  a  fantastic-looking  creature,  who  played  a  hideous 
slogan  on  a  short  pan-pipe.  This  main  body  was 
followed  at  intervals  by  groups  of  twos  and  threes 
who  had  been  hastily  summoned  from  their  work, 
and  I  must  say  the  whole  turnout  looked  very  like 
business.  The  last  of  the  warriors  had  scarcely 
disappeared  before  another  procession  of  a  different 
sort  set  in  from  the  opposite  direction.  It  consisted 
of  the  women  and  children  from  the  threatened 
villages  farther  up  the  valley.     It  was  a  melting 


96 


WANDERINGS  ON  THE 


sight.  The  poor  creatures  were  of  all  ages  and  sizes, 
from  the  tottering  grandmother  to  the  week -old 
infant.  On  their  heads  they  carried  a  miscellaneous 
collection  of  household  gods,  and  even  the  little 
children  were  burdened  with  a  calabash,  a  grass-mat, 
a  couple  of  fowls,  or  a  handful  of  sweet-potatoes. 
Probably  the  entire  effects  of  the  villages  were 
represented  in  these  loads.  Amongst  the  fugitives 
were  a  few  goats  and  one  or  two  calves,  and  a  troop 
of  boys  brought  up  the  rear  driving  before  them  a 
herd  of  cows.  The  poor  creatures  quickened  their 
pace  as  they  passed  my  tent,  and  eyed  me  as 
furtively  as  if  I  and  my  men  had  been  a  detachment 
from  the  Angoni  executing  a  flank  movement.  The 
hamlet  opposite  our  camp,  across  the  river,  which 
had  gladdened  us  the  night  before  with  its  twinkling 
fires,  its  inhabitants  sitting  peacefully  at  their  doors 
or  fishing  in  the  stream,  was  already  deserted — the 
men  to  fight,  the  women  to  flee  for  their  lives  they 
knew  not  whither.  This  is  a  common  chapter  in 
African  history.  Except  among  the  very  largest 
tribes  no  man  can  call  his  home  his  own  for  a 
month. 

I  was  amazed  at  the  way  my  men  treated  the 
affair.  They  lounged  about  camp  with  the  most 
perfect  indifference.    This  was  accounted  for  by  my 


NYASS A- TANGANYIKA  PLATEAU 


97 


presence.  The  mere  presence  of  a  white  man  is 
considered  an  absolute  guarantee  of  safety  in  remoter 
Africa.  It  is  not  his  guns  or  his  imposing  retinue  ; 
it  is  simply  himself  He  is  not  mortal,  he  is  a  spirit. 
Had  I  not  been  there,  or  had  I  shown  the  white 
feather,  my  men  would  have  stampeded  for  Nyassa 
in  a  body.  I  had  learned  to  understand  the  feeling 
so  thoroughly  that  the  events  of  the  morning  gave 
me  no  concern  whatever,  and  I  spent  the  day  col- 
lecting in  the  usual  way. 

It  was  impossible  to  go  on  and  leave  the  loads  ; 
it  was  equally  impossible  to  get  carriers  at  hand. 
So  I  despatched  Seyid  with  a  letter  to  the  station 
on  the  Lake  requesting  six  or  eight  natives  to  be 
sent  from  there.  This  meant  a  delay  of  two  or 
three  days  at  least,  which,  with  the  rains  so  near,  was 
serious  for  me. 

Made  a  "  fly  "  for  the  tent ;  collected,  and  read. 
One  only  feels  the  heat  when  doing  nothing.  As 
the  sun  climbed  to  its  zenith  my  men  put  up  for 
themselves  the  most  enticing  bowers.  They  were 
ingeniously  made  with  interlacing  grasses  and  canes, 
and  densely  thatched  with  banana  leaves. 

Tried  twice  to  bake  bread,  with  Jingo  and  Moolu 
as  assistant  cooks.  Both  attempts  dismal  failures,  so 
I  had  to  draw  on  the  biscuit-tins.     I  have  plenty  of 

H 


98 


WANDERINGS  ON  THE 


fowls,  bought  yesterday  for  beads.  Maraya  down 
with  fever.  One  of  the  carriers,  Siamuka,  who  had 
been  left  behind  sick,  straggled  into  camp,  looking 
very  ill  indeed.  Physicked  him  and  gave  him  four 
yards  of  cloth  to  wrap  himself  in.  Towards  sunset 
I  began  to  get  anxious  for  news  of  battle.  The 
arrival  of  the  armed  band  which  had  passed  in  the 
morning  soon  gratified  me.  There  had  been  no 
battle.  There  had  been  no  Angoni.  It  was  simply 
a  scare — one  of  those  false  alarms  which  people  in 
these  unsettled  circumstances  are  constantly  liable  to. 
All  evening  the  women  and  children  were  trooping 
back  to  their  homes  ;  and  next  morning  our  friends 
opposite  were  smoking  their  pipes  at  the  doors  again, 
as  if  nothing  had  happened. 

Tuesday,  2d  October. — After  morning  cocoa  had 
a  walk  with  my  hammer  to  examine  the  sections  in 
the  valley.  Back  to  a  good  breakfast,  cooked  with 
all  the  art  of  Jingo,  the  real  cook  being  at  Karongas 
with  the  flag  of  distress.  Moolu  ill.  This  is  the 
third  man  down  with  fever  since  we  left  the  Lake. 
Bought  some  ufa  and  beans.  Dispensed  needles,  and 
bent  pins  for  fish-hooks,  among  the  men.  Held  a 
great  washing  with  Jingo.  Towards  the  afternoon 
the  reinforcements  arrived  from  Karongas.  The  chief 
was  drunk,  it  appeared,  when  my  messenger  reached 


NYASSA-TANGANYIKA  PLATEAU 


99 


him  ;  but  Mr.  Munro  at  the  Lake  kindly  sent  me  a 
number  of  his  own  men. 

Another  of  my  carriers  begged  leave  to  dissolve 
our  partnership,  and  produced  two  youths  whom 
he  had  beguiled  into  taking  his  load.  His  plea 
was  that  he  was  in  bad  odour  at  Mweni-wanda,  and 
was  afraid  to  go  on.  My  own  impression  is  that  he 
found  the  load  which  he  carried — on  his  head,  like 
all  Africans — was  spoiling  the  cut  of  his  hair.  Even 
Africa  has  its  exquisites,  and  this  man  was  the  swell 
all  over.  By  "  all  over,"  I  mean,  of  course,  all  over 
his  head,  for  as  his  hair  is  his  only  clothing,  except 
the  bark  loincloth  of  which  the  cut  cannot  well  be 
varied,  he  had  poured  out  the  whole  of  his  great  soul 
upon  his  coiffure.  At  the  best  the  African's  hair  is 
about  the  length  of  a  toy-shop  poodle's  ;  but  vanity 
can  make  even  a  fool  creative,  and  out  of  this  scanty 
material  and  with  extraordinary  labour  he  had  com- 
piled a  masterpiece.  First,  heavily  greased  with 
ground-nut  oil,  it  was  made  up  into  small-sized  balls 
like  black-currants,  and  then  divided  into  symmetrical 
patterns,  diamonds,  circles,  and  parterres,  designed 
with  the  skill  of  a  landscape-gardener.  To  protect 
this  work  of  art  from  nightly  destruction,  this  gentle- 
man always  carried  with  him  a  pillow  of  special 
make.     It  was  constructed  of  wood,  and  dangled 


lOO 


WANDERINGS  ON  THE 


conspicuously  from  his  spear- head  on  the  march. 
He  sold  it  to  me  ultimately  for  a  yard  of  calico — 
and  he  certainly  would  not  sleep  after  the  transaction 
till  he  had  laid  the  foundations  of  another. 

\2tJi  October. — Got  under  weigh  at  early  dawn. 
Much  shirking  and  dodging  among  the  men  for  light 
loads.  Formerly  sudden  and  suspicious  fevers  used 
to  develop  at  this  critical  juncture — by  a  not  unac- 
countable coincidence  among  the  men  with  the 
heaviest  loads;  but  my  now  well-known  mixture, 
compounded  of  pepper,  mustard,  cold  tea,  citrate  of 
magnesia,  Epsom  salts,  anything  else  that  might 
be  handy,  and  a  flavouring  pinch  of  cinchona,  has 
miraculously  stayed  the  epidemic.  But  I  forgive 
these  merry  fellows  everything  for  wasting  none  of 
the  morning  coolness  over  toilet  or  breakfast.  I 
need  not  say  the  African  never  washes  in  the 
morning  ;  but  what  is  of  more  importance,  he  never 
eats.  He  rises  suddenly  from  the  ground  where  he 
has  lain  like  a  log  all  night,  gives  himself  a  shake, 
shoulders  his  load,  and  is  off.  Even  at  the  mid-day 
halt  he  eats  little  ;  but,  if  he  can  get  it,  will  regale 
himself  with  a  draught  of  water  and  a  smoke.  This 
last  is  a  perfunctory  performance,  and  one  pipe 
usually  serves  for  a  dozen  men.  Each  takes  a  whiff 
or  two  from  the  great  wooden  bowl,  then  passes  it 


NYASSA- TANGANYIKA  PLATEAU  loi 


to  his  neighbour,  and  the  pipe  seldom  makes  a 
second  round. 

I  often  wondered  how  the  natives  produced  a 
h'ght  when  camping  by  themselves,  and  at  last 
resolved  to  test  it.  So  when  the  usual  appeal  was 
made  to  me  for  motu,"  I  handed  them  my  vesta- 
box  with  a  single  match  in  it.  I  generally  struck 
the  match  for  them,  this  being  considered  a  very 
daring  experiment,  and  I  felt  pretty  sure  they  would 
make  a  mess  of  their  one  chance.  It  turned  out  as 
anticipated,  and  when  they  handed  back  the  empty 
box,  I  looked  as  abstracted  and  unapproachable  as 
possible.  After  a  little  suspense,  one  of  them  slowly 
drew  from  the  sewn-up  monkey  skin,  which  served 
for  his  courier -bag,  a  small  piece  of  wood  about 
three  inches  long.  With  a  spear-head  he  cut  in  it  a 
round  hole  the  size  of  a  threepenny-piece.  Placing 
his  spear-blade  flat  on  the  ground  to  serve  as  a  base, 
he  stretched  over  it  a  scrap  of  bark-cloth  torn  from 
his  girdle,  and  then  pinned  both  down  with  the 
perforated  piece  of  wood,  which  a  second  native  held 
firmly  in  position.  Next  he  selected  from  among 
his  arrows  a  slender  stick  of  very  hard  wood,  inserted 
it  vertically  in  the  hole,  and  proceeded  to  twirl  it 
round  with  great  velocity  between  his  open  palms. 
In  less  than  half  a  minute  the  tinder  was  smoking 


I02 


WANDERINGS  ON  THE 


sulkily,  and  after  a  few  more  twirls  it  was  ready  for 
further  treatment  by  vigorous  blowing,  when  it  broke 
into  active  flame.  The  fire  originates,  of  course,  in 
the  small  soft  piece  of  wood,  from  which  sparks  fall 
upon  the  more  inflammable  bark-cloth  at  the  bottom 
of  the  hole. 

Our  daily  programme,  on  the  march,  was  some- 
thing like  this.  At  the  first  streak  of  dawn  my 
tent  was  struck.  There  is  no  time  for  a  meal,  for 
the  cool  early  hour  is  too  precious  in  the  tropics  to 
waste  over  eating  ;  but  a  hasty  coffee  while  the  loads 
were  packing  kept  up  the  tradition  of  breakfast.  In 
twenty  minutes  the  men  were  marshalled,  quarrels 
about  an  extra  pound  weight  adjusted,  and  the  pro- 
cession started.  At  the  head  of  the  column  I  usually 
walked  myself,  partly  to  see  the  country  better, 
partly  to  look  out  for  game,  and  partly,  I  suppose, 
beca.use  there  was  no  one  else  to  do  it.  Close 
behind  me  came  my  own  special  valet — a  Makololo 
— carrying  my  geological  hammer,  water-bottle,  and 
loaded  rifle.  The  white  man,  as  a  rule,  carries 
nothing  except  himself  and  a  revolver,  and  possibly 
a  double-awned  umbrella,  which,  with  a  thick  pith 
helmet,  makes  sunstroke  impossible.  Next  Jingo 
marched  the  cook,  a  plausible  Mananja,  who  could 
cook  little,  except  his  version  of  where  the  missing 


N  YASSA- TANGANYIKA  PL  A  TEA  U 


victuals  went  to.  After  the  cook  came  another 
gentleman's  gentleman  carrying  a  gun  and  the 
medicine  chest,  and  after  him  the  rank  and  file,  with 
another  gun-bearer  looking  out  for  deserters  at  the 
rear.  From  half-past  five  I  usually  trudged  on  till 
the  sun  made  moving  torture,  about  ten  or  eleven. 
When  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  find  shade  and 
water  there  was  a  long  rest  till  three  in  the  after- 
noon, and  an  anomalous  meal,  followed  by  a  second 
march  till  sunset.  The  dreadful  part  of  the  day  was 
the  interval.  Then  observations  were  made,  and 
specimens  collected  and  arranged,  each  man  having 
to  fill  a  collecting- box  before  sunset.  When  this 
was  over  there  was  nothing  else  to  do  that  it  was 
not  too  hot  to  do.  It  was  too  hot  to  sleep,  there 
was  nothing  to  read,  and  no  one  to  speak  to  ;  the 
nearest  post-office  was  a  thousand  miles  off,  and  the 
only  amusement  was  to  entertain  the  native  chiefs, 
who  used  occasionally  to  come  with  their  followers 
to  stare  at  the  white  man.  These  interviews  at  first 
entertained  one  vastly,  but  the  humbling  perform- 
ances I  had  to  go  through  became  most  intolerable. 
Think  of  having  to  stand  up  before  a  gaping  crowd 
of  savages  and  gravely  button  your  coat — they  had 
never  seen  a  coat ;  or,  wonder  of  wonders,  strike  a 
match,  or  snap  a  revolver,  or  set  fire  to  somebody's 


104 


WANDERINGS  ON  THE 


bark  clothes  with  a  burning-glass.  Three  or  four 
times  a  day  often  I  had  to  go  through  these  miser- 
able performances,  and  I  have  come  home  with  a 
new  sympathy  for  sword-swallowers,  fire-eaters,  the 
man  with  the  iron  jaw,  and  all  that  ilk. 

The  interview  commenced  usually  with  the 
approach  of  two  or  three  terror-stricken  slaves,  sent 
by  the  chief  as  a  preliminary  to  test  whether  or  not 
the  white  man  would  eat  them.  Their  presents, 
native  grains  of  some  kind,  being  accepted,  they 
concluded  I  was  at  least  partly  vegetarian,  and  the 
great  man  with  his  courtiers,  armed  with  long  spears, 
would  advance  and  kneel  down  in  a  circle.  A  little 
speechifying  followed,  and  then  my  return  presents 
were  produced — two  or  three  yards  of  twopence- 
halfpenny  calico  ;  and  if  he  was  a  very  great  chief 
an  empty  Liebig  pot  or  an  old  jam  tin  was  also  pre- 
sented with  great  ceremony.  None  of  my  instruments, 
I  found,  at  all  interested  these  people — they  were 
quite  beyond  them  ;  and  I  soon  found  that  in  my 
whole  outfit  there  were  not  half  a  dozen  things  which 
conveyed  any  meaning  to  them  whatever.  They  did 
not  know  enough  even  to  be  amazed.  The  greatest 
wonder  of  all  perhaps  was  the  burning-glass.  They 
had  never  seen  glass  before,  and  thought  it  was  mazi 
or  water,  but  why  the  mazi  did  not  run  over  when  I 


NYASSA-TANGANYIKA  PLATEAU 


105 


put  it  in  my  pocket  passed  all  understanding.  When 
the  light  focused  on  the  dry  grass  and  set  it  ablaze 
their  terror  knew  no  bounds.  "  He  is  a  mighty 
spirit,"  they  cried,  "  and  brings  down  fire  from  the 
sun  !"  This  single  remark  contains  the  key  to  the 
whole  secret  of  a  white  man's  influence  and  power 
over  all  uncivilised  tribes.  Why  a  white  man,  alone 
and  unprotected,  can  wander  among  these  savage 
people  without  any  risk  from  murder  or  robbery  is 
a  mystery  at  home.  But  it  is  his  moral  power,  his 
education,  his  civilisation.  To  the  African  the  white 
man  is  a  supreme  being.  His  commonest  acts  are 
miracles  ;  his  clothes,  his  guns,  his  cooking  utensils 
are  supernatural.  Everywhere  his  word  is  law.  He 
can  prevent  death  and  war  if  he  but  speak  the  word. 
And  let  a  single  European  settle,  with  fifty  square 
miles  of  heathen  round  him,  and  in  a  short  time  he 
will  be  their  king,  their  lawgiver,  and  their  judge. 
I  asked  my  men  one  day  the  question  point  blank — 
"Why  do  you  not  kill  me  and  take  my  guns  and 
clothes  and  beads  ?"  "  Oh,"  they  replied,  we  would 
never  kill  a  spirit."  Their  veneration  for  the  white 
man  indeed  is  sometimes  most  affecting.  When  war 
is  brewing,  or  pestilence,  they  kneel  before  him  and 
pray  to  him  to  avert  it ;  and  so  much  do  they  believe 
in  his  omnipotence  that  an  unprincipled  man  by 


io6 


WANDERINGS  ON  THE 


trading  on  it,  by  simply  offering  pins,  or  buttons  or 
tacks,  or  pieces  of  paper,  or  anything  English,  as 
charms  against  death,  could  almost  drain  a  country 
of  its  ivory — the  only  native  wealth. 

The  real  dangers  to  a  traveller  are  of  a  simpler 
kind.  Central  Africa  is  the  finest  hunting  country 
in  the  world.  Here  are  the  elephant,  the  buffalo, 
the  lion,  the  leopard,  the  rhinoceros,  the  hippo- 
!  potamus,  the  giraffe,  the  hyaena,  the  eland,  the  zebra, 
I  and  endless  species  of  small  deer  and  antelope. 
Then  the  whole  country  is  covered  with  traps  to 
catch  these  animals — deep  pits  with  a  jagged  stake 
rising  up  in  the  middle,  the  whole  roofed  over  with 
turf  and  grass,  so  exactly  like  the  forest  bed  that 
only  the  trained  eye  can  detect  their  presence.  I 
have  found  myself  walking  unconsciously  on  a 
narrow  neck  between  two  of  these  pits,  when  a 
couple  of  steps  to  either  side  would  almost  certainly 
have  meant  death.  Snakes  too,  and  especially  the 
hideous  and  deadly  puff  adder,  may  turn  up  at  any 
moment  ;  and  in  bathing,  which  one  eagerly  does  at 
every  pool,  the  sharpest  lookout  is  scarcely  a  match 
for  the  diabolical  craft  of  the  crocodile. 

13//^  October. — Walking  through  the  forest  to-day 
some  distance  ahead  of  my  men,  I  suddenly  came 
upon   a  rhinoceros.    The   creature — the  rhino  is 


NYASSA-TANGANYIKA  PLATEAU 


107 


solitary  in  his  habits — was  poking  about  the  bush 
with  its  head  down  and  did  not  see  me,  though  not 
ten  yards  separated  us.  My  only  arms  were  a 
geological  hammer  and  a  revolver,  so  I  had  simply 
to  lie  down  and  watch  him.  Presently  my  gun- 
bearer  crawled  up,  but  unfortunately  by  this  time 
the  pachyderm  had  vanished,  and  was  nowhere  to  be 
found.  I  broke  my  heart  over  it  at  the  moment, 
though  why  in  the  world  I  should  have  killed  him 
I  do  not  in  the  least  know  now.  In  cold  blood  one 
resents  Mr.  Punch's  typical  Englishman — "  What  a 
heavenly  morning!  let's  go  and  kill  something!" 
but  in  presence  of  temptation  one  feels  the  veritable 
savage. 

We  are  now  at  an  elevation  of  about  four  thou- 
sand feet,  and  steadily  nearing  the  equator,  although 
the  climate  gives  little  sign  of  it.  It  is  a  popular 
mistake  that  the  nearer  one  goes  to  the  equator  the 
temperature  must  necessarily  increase.  Were  this 
so,  Africa,  which  is  the  most  tropical  continent  in 
the  world,  would  also  be  the  hottest  ;  while  the 
torrid  zone,  which  occupies  so  large  a  portion  of  it, 
would  be  almost  insupportable  to  the  European. 
On  the  contrary,  the  nearer  one  goes  to  the  equator 
in  Africa  it  becomes  the  cooler.  The  reasons  for 
this  are  twofold — the  gradual  elevation  of  the  con- 


io8 


WANDERINGS  ON  THE 


tinent  towards  the  interior,  and  the  increased  amount 
of  aqueous  vapour  in  the  air.  Central  Africa  is 
from  three  to  five  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of 
the  sea.  Now  for  every  three  hundred  feet  of  ascent 
the  thermometer  falls  one  degree.  It  is  immensely 
cooler,  therefore,  in  the  interior  than  at  the  coast ; 
and  the  equatorial  zone  all  over  the  world  possesses 
a  climate  in  every  way  superior  to  that  of  the  borders 
of  the  temperate  region.  At  night,  in  Equatorial 
Africa,  it  is  really  cold,  and  one  seldom  lies  down  in 
his  tent  with  less  than  a  couple  of  blankets  and  a 
warm  quilt.  The  heat  of  New  York  is  often  greater 
than  that  of  Central  Africa  ;  for  while  in  America 
a  summer  rarely  passes  without  the  thermometer 
reaching  three  figures,  in  the  hottest  month  in  Africa 
my  thermometer  never  registered  more  than  two  on 
a  single  occasion — the  highest  actual  point  reached 
being  96°.  Nowhere,  indeed,  in  Africa  have  I  experi- 
enced anything  Hke  the  heat  of  a  summer  in  Malta, 
or  even  of  a  stifling  August  in  Southern  Germany 
or  Italy.  On  the  other  hand,  the  direct  rays  of  the 
sun  are  necessarily  more  powerful  in  Africa  ;  but  so 
long  as  one  keeps  in  the  shade — and  even  a  good 
umbrella  suffices  for  this  —  there  is  nothing  in  the 
climate  to  disturb  one's  peace  of  mind  or  body. 
When  one  really  feels  the  high  temperature  is  when 


NYASSA-TANGANYIKA  PLATEAU  109 


down  with  fever  ;  or  when  fever,  unknown  to  one,  is 
coming  on.  Then,  indeed,  the  heat  becomes  madden- 
ing and  insupportable  ;  nor  has  the  victim  w^ords  to 
express  his  feehngs  towards  the  ghttering  ball,  whose 
daily  march  across  the  burnished  and  veilless  zenith 
brings  him  untold  agony. 

\^th  to  22d  October. — This  camp  is  so  well  situ- 
ated that  I  have  spent  the  week  in  it.  The  pro- 
gramme is  the  same  every  day.  At  dawn  Jingo 
came  to  my  tent  with  early  coffee.  Went  out  with 
my  gun  for  a  morning  stroll,  and  returned  in  an 
hour  for  breakfast.  Thereafter  I  sorted  the  speci- 
mens captured  the  day  before,  and  hung  up  the 
fatter  insects  to  dry  in  the  sun.  Routing  the  ants 
from  the  boxes  and  provision  stores  was  also  an 
important  and  vexatious  item.  Some  ants  are  so 
clever  that  they  can  break  into  everything,  and 
others  so  small  that  they  will  craw^l  into  anything  ; 
and  between  the  clever  ones,  and  the  small  ones,  and 
the  jam-loving  ones,  and  the  flour-eating  ones,  and 
the  specimen-devouring  ones,  subsistence,  not  to  say 
science,  is  a  serious  problem.  The  only  things  that 
have  hitherto  baffled  them  are  the  geological  speci- 
mens ;  but  I  overhaul  these  regularly  every  morning 
along  with  the  rest,  in  terror  of  one  day  finding  some 
precocious  creature  browsing  off  my  granites.  After 


no 


WANDERINGS  ON  THE 


these  labours  I  repaired  to  a  natural  bower  in  the 
dry  bed  of  a  shaded  streamlet,  where  I  spent  the 
entire  day.  Here,  even  at  high  noon,  was  perfect 
coolness,  and  rest,  and  solitude  unutterable.  I  lay 
among  birds  and  beasts  and  flowers  and  insects, 
watching  their  ways,  and  trying  to  enter  into  their 
unknown  lives.  To  watch  uninterruptedly  the  same 
few  yards  of  universe  unfold  its  complex  history ; 
to  behold  the  hourly  resurrection  of  new  living 
things,  and  miss  no  change  or  circumstance,  even  of 
its  minuter  parts ;  to  look  at  all,  especially  the 
things  you  have  seen  before,  a  hundred  times,  to  do 
all  with  patience  and  reverence — this  is  the  only 
way  to  study  nature. 

Towards  the  afternoon  the  men  began  to  drop 
in  with  their  boxes  of  insects,  each  man  having  to 
collect  a  certain  number  every  camp-day.  If  suffi- 
cient were  not  brought  in  the  delinquent  had  to  go 
back  to  the  bush  for  more.  At  five  or  six  I  went 
back  to  my  tent  for  dinner,  and  after  an  hour  over 
the  camp-fire  turned  in  for  the  night.  The  chatter- 
ing of  the  men  all  round  the  tent  usually  kept  me 
awake  for  an  hour  or  two.  Their  merriest  time  is 
just  after  sunset,  when  the  great  ufa-feast  of  the  day 
takes  place.  The  banter  between  the  fires  is  kept 
up  till  the  small  hours,  and  the  chief  theme  of  con- 


NYASSA-TANGANYIKA  PLATEAU  m 

versation  is  always  the  white  man  himself — what 
the  white  man  did,  and  what  the  white  man  said, 
and  how  the  white  man  held  his  gun,  and  every- 
thing else  the  white  man  thought,  looked,  willed, 
wore,  ate,  or  drank.  My  object  in  being  there  was 
an  insoluble  riddle  to  them,  and  for  what  witchcraft 
I  collected  all  the  stones  and  insects  was  an  unending 
source  of  speculation. 

That  they  entered  to  some  extent  into  one  at  least 
of  these  interests  was  proved  that  very  night.  I  was 
roused  rather  late  by  a  deputation,  who  informed  me 
that  they  had  just  discovered  a  very  uncommon  object 
crawling  on  a  stick  among  the  firewood.  Going  out 
to  the  fire,  and  stirring  the  embers  into  a  blaze,  I  was 
shown  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  insects  it  has 
been  my  lot  to  look  upon.  Rather  over  two  inches 
in  length,  the  creature  lay  prone  upon  a  branch, 
adroitly  shamming  death,  after  the  manner  of  the 
MantidcB^  to  which  it  obviously  belonged.  The 
striking  feature  was  a  glittering  coal-black  spiral, 
with  a  large  central  spot  of  the  same  colour,  painted 
on  the  middle  of  the  back  ;  the  whole  resembliner 
a  gigantic  eye  staring  out  from  the  body,  and 
presenting  the  most  vivid  contrast  to  the  lemon 
yellows  and  greens  of  the  rest  of  the  insect.  One 
naturally  sought  a  mimetic  explanation  of  the  singular 


112 


WANDERINGS  ON  THE 


marking,  and  I  at  once  recalled  a  large  fringed  lichen 
which  covered  many  of  the  surrounding  trees,  and  of 
which  this  whole  insect  was  a  most  apt  copy.  That 
it  was  as  rare  as  it  was  eccentric  was  evident  from 
the  astonishment  of  the  natives,  who  declared  that 
they  had  never  seen  it  before. 

22d  October, — Water  has  been  scarce  for  some 
days,  and  this  morning  our  one  pool  was  quite  dried 
up,  so  I  struck  camp.  Marching  north-west,  over 
an  undulating  forest  country,  we  came  to  a  small 
village,  near  which  was  a  running  stream.  The 
chief,  an  amiable  old  gentleman,  after  an  hour  spent 
in  suspicious  prospecting,  came  to  see  the  show,  and 
propitiated  its  leading  actor  with  a  present  of  flour. 
In  return  I  gave  him  some  cloth  and  an  empty 
magnesia  bottle  to  hold  his  snuff.  The  native  snuff- 
mull  is  a  cylinder  of  wood  profusely  carved,  and,  in 
the  absence  of  a  pocket,  hangs  tied  round  the  neck 
with  a  thong.     Snuffing  is  universal  hereabouts. 

This  is  a  hotter  camp  than  the  last,  though  the 
elevation  (4500  feet) -is  nearly  the  same.  Paid  the 
men  their  fortnight's  wage  in  cloth,  and  as  I  threw 
in  an  extra  fathom  they  held  high  revelry  till  far  on 
in  the  night. 

2^th  October. — Buffalo  fever  still  on.  Sallied 
forth  early  with  Moolu,  a  large  herd  being  reported 


NYASSA- TANGANYIKA  PL  A  TEA  U 


"3 


at  hand.  We  struck  the  trail  after  a  few  miles,  but 
the  buffaloes  had  moved  away,  passing  up  a  steep 
valley  to  the  north  and  clearing  a  hill.  I  followed, 
but  saw  no  sign,  and  after  one  or  two  unsuccessful 
starts  gave  it  up  as  the  heat  had  become  terrific. 
Breakfasted  off  wild  honey,  which  one  of  the  natives 
managed  to  lay  hands  on,  and  sent  for  the  camp  to 
come  up.  Moolu  went  on  with  one  native,  T'Shaula 
— he  of  the  great  spear  and  the  black  feathers. 
They  returned  about  two  o'clock  announcing  that 
they  had  dropped  two  bull  buffaloes,  but  not  being 
mortally  wounded  the  quarry  had  made  off.  Late 
in  the  afternoon  two  of  my  men  rushed  in  saying 
that  one  of  the  wounded  buffaloes  had  attacked  two 
of  their  number,  one  severely,  and  that  assistance 
was  wanted  to  carry  them  back.  It  seems  that  five 
of  the  men,  on  hearing  Moolu's  report  about  the 
wounded  buffaloes,  and  tempted  by  the  thought  of 
fresh  meat,  set  off  without  permission  to  try  to  secure 
them.  It  was  a  foolhardy  freak,  as  they  had  only 
a  spear  with  them,  and  a  wounded  buffalo  bull  is 
the  most  dangerous  animal  in  Africa.  It  charges 
blindly  at  anything,  and  even  after  receiving  its  mortal 
wound  has  been  known  to  kill  its  assailant.  The 
would-be  hunters  soon  overtook  one  of  the  creatures, 
a  huge  bull,  lying  in  a  hollow,  and  apparently  i7i 

I 


114 


WANDERINGS  ON  THE 


artiailo  mortis.  They  calmly  walked  up  to  it — the 
.  maddest  thing  in  the  world — when  the  brute  suddenly 
roused  itself  and  charged  headlong.  They  ran  for 
their  lives  ;  one  was  overtaken  and  trampled  down 
in  a  moment ;  the  second  was  caught  up  a  few  yards 
farther  on  and  literally  impaled  on  the  animal's 
horns.  The  first  hobbled  into  camp  little  the  worse, 
but  the  latter  was  brought  in  half  dead.  He  had 
two  frightful  wounds,  the  less  serious  on  the  back 
behind  the  shoulder-blade,  the  other  a  yawning  gash 
just  under  the  ribs.  I  fortunately  had  a  little  lint 
and  dressed  his  wounds  as  well  as  I  could,  but  I 
thought  he  would  die  in  my  hands.  He  was  quite 
delirious,  and  I  ordered  a  watch  all  night  in  case  the 
bleeding  should  break  out  afresh.  His  nurses  un- 
happily could  not  take  in  the  philosophy  of  this,  and 
I  had  to  turn  out  every  hour  to  see  that  they  were 
not  asleep.  The  native's  conception  of  pain  is  that 
it  is  the  work  of  an  evil  spirit,  and  the  approved 
treatment  consists  in  blowing  upon  the  wound  and 
suspending  a  wooden  charm  from  the  patient's  neck 
to  exorcise  it.  All  this  was  duly  done  now,  and  the 
blowing  was  repeated  at  frequent  intervals  through 
the  night. 

25//^  October. — Kacquia  conscious,  and  suffering 
much.     It  is  impossible  to  go  on,  so  the  men  have 


NYASSA- TANGANYIKA  PL  A  TEA  U 


115 


rigged  up  a  bower  for  me  on  the  banks  of  a  stream 
near  the  camp.  Read,  wrote,  physicked  right  and 
left,  and  received  the  Chief  of  Something-or-other. 
Bribed  some  of  his  retinue  to  search  the  district 
for  indiarubber,  and  bring  specimens  of  the  trees. 
After  many  hours  absence  they  brought  me  back  two 
freshly-made  balls,  but  neglected  to  bring  a  branch, 
which  was  what  I  promised  to  pay  them  for.  From 
their  description  I  gather  the  tree  is  the  Landolphia 
vine.  The  method  of  securing  the  rubber  is  to 
make  incisions  in  the  stem  and  smear  the  exuding 
milky  juice  over  their  arms  and  necks.  After  it  has 
dried  a  little  they  scrape  it  off  and  roll  it  up  into  balls. 

An  instance  of  what  the  native  will  do  for  a  scrap 
of  meat.  Near  camp  this  morning  Moolu  pointed 
out  to  me  a  gray  lump  on  the  top  of  a  very  high 
tree,  which  he  assured  me  was  an  animal.  It  was  a 
kind  of  lemur,  and  very  good  to  eat.  I  had  only 
my  Winchester  with  me,  and  the  ball  ripped  up  the 
animal,  which  fell  at  once,  but  leaving  an  ounce  or 
two  of  viscera  on  the  branch.  One  of  the  men, 
Makata,  coming  up  at  the  sound  of  the  shot,  per- 
ceived that  the  animal  was  not  all  there — it  had 
been  literally  "cleaned" — immediately  started  to 
climb  the  tree  for  the  remainder.  It  was  a  naked 
stem  for  a  considerable  height  and   thicker  than 


ii6 


WANDERINGS  ON  THE 


himself,  but  he  attacked  it  at  once  native  fashion,  i.e. 
by  ivalking  up  the  trunk,  his  clasped  hands  grasping 
the  trunk  on  the  opposite  side  from  his  doubled-up 
body,  and  literally  walking  upward  on  his  soles. 
He  soon  came  down  with  the  precious  mess,  and  in 
a  few  minutes  it  was  cooked  and  eaten. 

To-night  I  thought  my  hour  was  come.  Our 
camp  was  right  in  the  forest ;  it  was  pitch  dark  ; 
and  I  was  sitting  late  over  the  smouldering  fire  with 
the  wounded  man.  Suddenly  a  terrific  yell  rang 
out  from  the  forest,  and  a  native  rushed  straight  at 
me  brandishing  his  spear  and  whooping  at  the 
pitch  of  his  voice.  Sure  that  it  was  an  attack, 
I  darted  towards  the  tent  for  my  rifle,  and  in 
a  second  every  man  in  the  camp  was  huddling  in 
it  likewise.  Some  dashed  in  headlong  by  the  door, 
others  under  the  canvas,  until  there  was  not  room  to 
crawl  among  their  bodies.  Then  followed — nothing. 
First  an  awful  silence,  then  a  whispering,  then  a 
mighty  laughter,  and  then  the  whole  party  sneaked 
out  of  the  fort  and  yelled  with  merriment.  One  of 
my  own  men  had  crept  out  a  few  yards  for  firewood ; 
he  had  seen  a  leopard,  and  lost  control  of  himself — 
that  was  all.  It  is  hard  to  say  who  was  most 
chaffed  about  it ;  but  I  confess  I  did  not  realise 
before  how  simple  a  business  it  would  have  been  for 


NVASSA- TANGANYIKA  PL  A  TEA  U 


"7 


any  one  who  did  not  approve  of  the  white  man  to 
exterminate  him  and  his  caravan. 

SuJtday,  2%th  October. — My  patient  holding  on  ; 
will  now  probably  pull  through.  As  he  has  to  be  fed 
on  liquids,  my  own  fowls  have  all  gone  in  chicken 
soup.  Fowls  are  now  very  scarce,  and  my  men, 
taking  advantage  of  the  high  premium  and  urgent 
demand,  have  gone  long  distances  to  get  them. 
They  will  not  supply  them  to  the  invalid,  but  sell 
them  to  me  to  give  him.  Wishing  to  teach  them  a 
lesson  in  philanthropy,  I  declined  to  buy  any  more 
on  these  terms  ;  and  after  seeing  me  go  three  days 
dinnerless  to  give  Kacquia  his  chance  of  life  they 
became  ashamed  of  themselves,  and  handed  me  all 
the  fowls  they  had  in  a  present.  This  was  a  pro- 
digious effort  for  a  native,  and  proves  him  capable 
of  better  things.  The  whole  camp  had  been  watch- 
ing this  byplay  for  a  day  or  two,  and  the  finish  did 
good  all  round — more  especially  as  I  gave  a  return 
present,  after  a  judicious  interval,  worth  five  times 
what  had  been  given  me. 

Held  the  usual  service  in  the  evening — a  piece 
of  very  primitive  Christianity.  Moolu,  who  had 
learned  much  from  Dr.  Laws,  undertook  the  sermon, 
and  discoursed  with  great  eloquence  on  the  Tower 
of  Babel.     The  preceding  Sunday  he  had  waxed 


ii8 


WANDERINGS  ON  THE 


equally  warm  over  the  Rich  Man  and  Lazarus  ;  and 
his  description  of  the  Rich  Man  in  terms  of  native 
ideas  of  wealth — "  plenty  of  calico  and  plenty  of 
beads" — was  a  thing  to  remember.  "Mission- 
blacks,"  in  Natal  and  at  the  Cape,  are  a  byword 
among  the  unsympathetic  ;  but  I  never  saw  Moolu 
do  an  inconsistent  thing.  He  could  neither  read 
nor  write  ;  he  knew  only  some  dozen  words  of 
English  ;  until  seven  years  ago  he  had  never  seen  a 
white  man  ;  but  I  could  trust  him  with  everything  I 
had.  He  was  not  "  pious  "  ;  he  was  neither  bright 
nor  clever  ;  he  was  a  commonplace  black  ;  but  he 
did  his  duty  and  never  told  a  lie.  The  first  night 
of  our  camp,  after  all  had  gone  to  rest,  I  remember 
being  roused  by  a  low  talking.  I  looked  out  of  my 
tent ;  a  flood  of  moonlight  lit  up  the  forest  ;  and 
there,  kneeling  upon  the  ground,  was  a  little  group  of 
natives,  and  Moolu  in  the  centre  conducting  evening 
prayers.  Every  night  afterwards  this  service  was 
repeated,  no  matter  how  long  the  march  was  nor 
how  tired  the  men.  I  make  no  comment.  But 
this  I  will  say — Moolu's  life  gave  him  the  right 
to  do  it.  Mission  reports  are  often  said  to  be 
valueless  ;  they  are  less  so  than  anti-mission  reports. 
I  believe  in  missions,  for  one  thing,  because  I  believe 
in  Moolu. 


NYASSA-TANGANYIKA  PLA  TEA  U 


119 


But  I  need  not  go  on  with  this  itinerary.  It  is 
very  much  the  same  thing  over  again.  For  some 
time  yet  you  must  imagine  the  curious  procession  I 
have  described  wandering  hither  and  thither  among 
the  wooded  mountains  and  valleys  of  the  table-land, 
and  going  through  the  same  general  programme. 
You  might  have  seen  its  chief  getting  browner  and 
browner  in  the  tropical  sun,  his  clothes  getting 
raggeder  and  raggeder,  his  collecting-boxes  becoming 
fuller  and  fuller,  and  his  desire  to  get  home  again 
growing  stronger  and  stronger.  Then  you  might 
have  seen  the  summer  end  and  the  tropical  rains 
begin,  and  the  whole  country  suddenly  clothe  itself 
with  living  green.  And  then,  as  the  season  advanced, 
you  might  have  seen  him  plodding  back  to  the  Lake, 
between  the  attacks  of  fever  working  his  way  down 
the  Shir6  and  Zambesi,  and  so,  after  many  days, 
greeting  the  new  spring  in  England. 


VI 

THE  WHITE  ANT 

A  THEORY 


VI 


THE  WHITE  ANT 


A  THEORY 


FEW    years    ago,   under    the  distinguished 


^  ^  patronage  of  Mr.  Darwin,  the  animal  in  vogue 
with  scientific  society  was  the  worm.  At  present 
the  fashionable  animal  is  the  ant.  I  am  sorry,  there- 
fore, to  have  to  begin  by  confessing  that  the  insect 
whose  praises  I  propose  to  sing,  although  bearing 
the  honoured  name,  is  not  entitled  to  consideration 
on  account  of  its  fashionable  connections,  since  the 
white  ant,  as  an  ant,  is  an  impostor.  It  is,  in  fact, 
not  an  ant  at  all,  but  belongs  to  a  much  humbler 
family — that  of  the  Termitidce — and  so  far  from  ever 
having  been  the  vogue,  this  clever  but  artful  creature 
is  hated  and  despised  by  all  civilised  peoples. 
Nevertheless,  if  I  mistake  not,  there  is  neither  among 
the  true  ants,  nor  among  the  worms,  an  insect  which 
plays  a  more  wonderful  or  important  part  in  nature. 


124 


THE  WHITE  ANT 


Fully  to  appreciate  the  beauty  of  this  function,  a 
glance  at  an  apparently  distant  aspect  of  nature  will 
be  necessary  as  a  preliminary. 

When  we  watch  the  farmer  at  work,  and  think 
how  he  has  to  plough,  harrow,  manure,  and  humour 
the  soil  before  even  one  good  crop  can  be  coaxed 
out  of  it,  we  are  apt  to  wonder  how  nature  manages 
to  secure  her  crops  and  yet  dispense  with  all  these 
accessories.  The  world  is  one  vast  garden,  bringing 
forth  crops  of  the  most  luxuriant  and  varied  kind 
century  after  century,  and  millennium  after  millen- 
nium. Yet  the  face  of  nature  is  nowhere  furrowed  by 
the  plough,  no  harrow  disintegrates  the  clods,  no  lime 
and  phosphates  are  strewn  upon  its  fields,  no  visible 
tillage  of  the  soil  improves  the  work  on  the  great 
world's  farm. 

Now,  in  reality,  there  cannot  be  crops,  or  succes- 
sions of  crops,  without  the  most  thorough  agriculture  ; 
and  when  we  look  more  closely  into  nature  we  dis- 
cover a  system  of  husbandry  of  the  most  surprising 
kind.  Nature  does  all  things  unobtrusively  ;  and  it 
is  only  now  that  we  are  beginning  to  see  the  magni- 
tude of  these  secret  agricultural  operations  by  which 
she  does  already  all  that  man  w^ould  wish  to  imitate, 
and  to  which  his  most  scientific  methods  are  but 
clumsy  approximations. 


A  THEORY 


125 


In  this  great  system  of  natural  husbandry  nature 
uses  agencies,  implements,  and  tools  of  many  kinds. 
There  is  the  disintegrating  frost,  that  great  natural 
harrow,  which  bursts  asunder  the  clods  by  the  ex- 
pansion during  freezing  of  the  moisture  imprisoned 
in  their  pores.  There  is  the  communistic  wind  which 
scatters  broadcast  over  the  fields  the  finer  soil  in  clouds 
of  summer  dust.  There  is  the  rain  which  washes 
the  humus  into  the  hollows,  and  scrapes  bare  the 
rocks  for  further  denudation.  There  is  the  air 
which,  with  its  carbonic  acid  and  oxygen,  dissolves 
and  decomposes  the  stubborn  hills,  and  manufactures 
out  of  them  the  softest  soils  of  the  valley.  And 
there  are  the  humic  acids,  generated  through  decay, 
which  filter  through  the  ground  and  manure  and 
enrich  the  new-made  soils. 

But  this  is  not  all,  nor  is  this  enough  ;  to  prepare 
a  surface  film,  however  rich,  and  to  manure  the  soil 
beneath,  will  secure  one  crop,  but  not  a  succession  of 
crops.  There  must  be  a  mixture  and  transference  of 
these  layers,  and  a  continued  mixture  and  transference, 
kept  up  from  age  to  age.  The  lower  layer  of  soil, 
exhausted  with  bringing  forth,  must  be  transferred  to 
the  top  for  change  of  air,  and  there  it  must  lie  for  a 
long  time,  increasing  its  substance,  and  recruiting  its 
strength  among  the  invigorating  elements.    The  upper 


126 


THE  WHITE  ANT 


film,  restored,  disintegrated,  saturated  with  fertility 
and  strength,  must  next  be  slowly  lowered  down 
again  to  where  the  rootlets  are  lying  in  wait  for  it, 
deep  in  the  under  soil. 

Now  how  is  this  last  change  brought  about? 
Man  turns  up  the  crust  with  the  plough,  throwing 
up  the  exhausted  earth,  down  the  refreshed  soil, 
with  infinite  toil  and  patience.  And  nature  does  it 
by  natural  ploughmen  who,  with  equal  industry,  are 
busy  all  over  the  world  reversing  the  earth's  crust, 
turning  it  over  and  over  from  year  to  year,  only  much 
more  slowly  and  much  more  thoroughly,  spadeful 
by  spadeful,  foot  by  foot,  and  even  grain  by  grain. 
Before  Adam  delved  the  Garden  of  Eden  these 
natural  agriculturists  were  at  work,  millions  and 
millions  of  them  in  every  part  of  the  globe,  at  differ- 
ent seasons  and  in  different  ways,  tilling  the  world's 
fields. 

According  to  Mr.  Darwin,  the  animal  which  per- 
forms this  most  important  function  in  nature  is  the 
earthworm.  The  marvellous  series  of  observations 
by  which  the  great  naturalist  substantiated  his 
conclusion  are  too  well  known  for  repetition.  Mr. 
Darwin  calculates  that  on  every  acre  of  land  in 
England  more  than  ten  tons  of  dry  earth  are  passed 
throujprh  the  bodies  of  worms  and  brought  to  the 


A  THEORY 


127 


surface  every  year  ;  and  he  assures  us  that  the  whole 
soil  of  the  country  must  pass  and  repass  through 
their  bodies  every  few  years.  Some  of  this  earth  is 
brought  up  from  a  considerable  depth  beneath  the 
soil,  for,  in  order  to  make  its  subterranean  burrow, 
the  animal  is  compelled  to  swallow  a  certain  quantity 
of  earth.  It  eats  its  way,  in  fact,  to  the  surface,  and 
there  voids  the  material  in  a  little  heap.  Although 
the  proper  diet  of  worms  is  decaying  vegetable 
matter,  dragged  down  from  the  surface  in  the  form 
of  leaves  and  tissues  of  plants,  there  are  many  occa- 
sions on  which  this  source  of  aliment  fails,  and  the 
animal  has  then  to  nourish  itself  by  swallowing 
quantities  of  earth,  for  the  sake  of  the  organic  sub- 
stances it  contains.  In  this  way  the  worm  has  a 
twofold  inducement  to  throw  up  earth.  First,  to 
dispose  of  the  material  excavated  from  its  burrow  ; 
and  second,  to  obtain  adequate  nourishment  in  times 
of  famine.  "  When  we  behold  a  wide,  turf-covered 
expanse,"  says  Mr.  Darwin,  "  we  should  remeniber 
that  its  smoothness,  on  which  so  much  of  its  beauty 
depends,  is  mainly  due  to  all  the  inequalities  having 
been  slowly  levelled  by  worms.  It  is  a  marvellous 
reflection  that  the  whole  of  the  superficial  mould 
over  any  such  expanse  has  passed,  and  will  again 
pass,  every  few  years,  through  the  bodies  of  worms. 


128 


THE  WHITE  ANT 


The  plough  is  one  of  the  most  ancient  and  most 
valuable  of  man's  inventions  ;  but  long  before  he 
existed  the  land  was,  in  fact,  regularly  ploughed  by 
earthworms.  It  may  be  "doubted  whether  there  are 
many  other  animals  which  have  played  so  important 
a  part  in  the  history  of  the  world  as  have  these  lowly 
organised  creatures."^ 

Now  without  denying  the  very  important  contri- 
bution of  the  earthworm  in  this  respect,  a  truth 
sufficiently  endorsed  by  the  fact  that  the  most  cir- 
cumstantial of  naturalists  has  devoted  a  whole  book 
to  this  one  animal,  I  would  humbly  bring  forward 
another  claimant  to  the  honour  of  being,  along  with 
the  worm,  the  agriculturist  of  nature.  While  ad- 
mitting to  the  fullest  extent  the  influence  of  worms 
in  countries  which  enjoy  a  temperate  and  humid 
climate,  it  can  scarcely  be  allowed  that  the  same 
influence  is  exerted,  or  can  possibly  be  exerted,  in 
tropical  lands.  No  man  was  less  in  danger  of  taking 
a  provincial  view  of  nature  than  Mr.  Darwin,  and  in 
discussing  the  earthworm  he  has  certainly  collected 
evidence  from  different  parts  of  the  globe.  He 
refers,  although  sparingly,  and  with  less  than  his 
usual  wealth  of  authorities,  to  worms  being  found  in 


1  Vegetable  Mould  and  Earth  Worms,  p.  313. 


A  THEORY 


129 


Iceland,  in  Madagascar,  in  the  United  States,  Brazil, 
New  South  Wales,  India,  and  Ceylon.  But  his 
facts,  with  regard  especially  to  the  influence,  on  the 
large  scale,  of  the  worm  in  warm  countries,  are  few 
or  wholly  wanting.  Africa,  for  instance,  the  most 
tropical  country  in  the  world,  is  not  referred  to  at 
all  ;  and  where  the  activities  of  worms  in  the  tropics 
are  described,  the  force  of  the  fact  is  modified  by 
the  statement  that  these  are  only  exerted  during  the 
limited  number  of  weeks  of  the  rainy  season. 

The  fact  is,  for  the  greater  portion  of  the  year  in 
the  tropics  the  worm  cannot  operate  at  all.  The 
soil,  baked  into  a  brick  by  the  burning  sun,  abso- 
lutely refuses  a  passage  to  this  soft  and  delicate 
animal.  All  the  members  of  the  earthworm  tribe, 
it  is  true,  are  natural  skewers,  and  though  boring  is 
their  supreme  function,  the  substance  of  these  skewers 
is  not  hardened  iron,  and  the  pavement  of  a  tropical 
forest  is  quite  as  intractable  for  nine  months  in  the 
year  as  are  the  frost-bound  fields  to  the  farmer's 
ploughshare.  During  the  brief  period  of  the  rainy 
season  worms  undoubtedly  carry  on  their  function 
in  some  of  the  moister  tropical  districts  ;  and  in  the 
sub-tropical  regions  of  South  America  and  India, 
worms,  small  and  large,  appear  with  the  rains  in 
endless  numbers.     But  on  the  whole  the  tropics 

K 


I30 


THE  WHITE  ANT 


proper  seem  to  be  poorly  supplied  with  worms.  In 
Central  Africa,  though  I  looked  for  them  often,  I 
never  saw  a  single  w^orm.  Even  when  the  rainy 
season  set  in,  the  closest  search  failed  to  reveal  any 
trace  either  of  them  or  of  their  casts.  Nevertheless, 
so  wide  is  the  distribution  of  this  animal,  that  in  the 
moister  regions  even  of  the  equatorial  belt  one  should 
certainly  expect  to  find  it.  But  the  general  fact 
remains.  Whether  we  consider  the  comparative 
poorness  of  their  development,  or  the  limited  period 
during  which  they  can  operate,  the  sustained  per- 
formance of  the  agricultural  function  by  worms,  over 
large  areas  in  tropical  countries,  is  impossible. 

Now  as  this  agricultural  function  can  never  be 
dispensed  with,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  nature 
will  have  there  commissioned  some  other  animal  to 
undertake  the  task.  And  there  are  several  other 
animals  to  whom  this  difficult  and  laborious  duty 
might  be  entrusted.  There  is  the  mole,  for  instance, 
with  its  wonderful  spade-like  feet,  that  natural  navvy, 
who  shovels  the  soil  about  so  vigorously  at  home  ; 
but  against  the  burnt  crust  of  the  tropics  even  this 
most  determined  of  burrow^ers  would  surely  turn  the 
edge  of  his  nails.  The  same  remark  applies  to  those 
curious  little  geologists  the  marmots  and  skipmunks, 
w^iich  one  sees  throwing  up  their  tiny  heaps  of  sand 


A  THEORY 


and  gravel  on  the  American  prairies.  And  though 
the  torrid  zone  boasts  of  a  strong-Hmbed  and  ahnost 
steel -shod  creature,  the  ant-bear,  his  ravages  are 
Hmited  to  the  destruction  of  the  nests  of  ants  ;  and 
however  much  this  somewhat  scarce  animal  contri- 
butes to  the  result,  we  must  look  in  another  direction 
for  the  true  tropical  analogue  of  the  worm. 

The  animal  we  are  in  search  of,  and  which  I 
venture  to  think  equal  to  all  the  necessities  of  the 
case,  is  the  termite  or  white  ant.  It  is  a  small 
insect,  with  a  bloated,  yellowish-white  body,  and  a 
somewhat  large  thorax,  oblong-shaped,  and  coloured 
a  disagreeable  oily  brown.  The  flabby,  tallow-like 
body  makes  this  insect  sufficiently  repulsive,  but  it 
is  for  quite  another  reason  that  the  white  ant  is  the 
worst  abused  of  all  living  vermin  in  warm  countries. 
The  termite .  lives  almost  exclusively  upon  wood  ; 
and  the  moment  a  tree  is  cut  or  a  log  sawn  for  any 
economical  purpose,  this  insect  is  upon  its  track. 
One  may  never  see  the  insect,  possibly,  in  the  flesh, 
for  it  lives  underground  ;  but  its  ravages  confront 
one  at  every  turn.  You  build  your  house,  perhaps, 
and  for  a  few  months  fancy  you  have  pitched  upon 
the  one  solitary  site  in  the  country  where  there  are 
no  white  ants.  But  one  day  suddenly  the  door-post 
totters,  and  lintel  and  rafters  come  down  together 


132 


THE  WHITE  ANT 


with  a  crash.  You  look  at  a  section  of  the  wrecked 
timbers,  and  discover  that  the  whole  inside  is  eaten 
clean  away.  The  apparently  solid  logs  of  which  the 
rest  of  the  house  is  built  are  now  mere  cylinders  of 
bark,  and  through  the  thickest  of  them  you  could 
push  your  little  finger.  Furniture,  tables,  chairs, 
chests  of  drawers,  everything  made  of  wood,  is  in- 
evitably attacked,  and  in  a  single  night  a  strong 
trunk  is  often  riddled  through  and  through,  and 
turned  into  matchwood.  There  is  no  limit,  in  fact, 
to  the  depredation  by  these  insects,  and  they  will 
eat  books,  or  leather,  or  cloth,  or  anything  ;  and  in 
many  parts  of  Africa  I  believe  if  a  man  lay  down  to 
sleep  with  a  wooden  leg  it  would  be  a  heap  of  saw- 
dust in  the  morning.  So  much  feared  is  this  insect 
now,  that  no  one  in  certain  parts  of  India  and  Africa 
ever  attempts  to  travel  with  such  a  thing  as  a  wooden 
trunk.  On  the  Tanganyika  plateau  I  have  camped 
on  ground  which  was  as  hard  as  adamant,  and  as 
innocent  of  white  ants  apparently  as  the  pavement 
of  St.  Paul's,  and  wakened  next  morning  to  find  a 
stout  wooden  box  almost  gnawed  to  pieces.  Leather 
portmanteaus  share  the  same  fate,  and  the  only  sub- 
stances which  seem  to  defy  the  marauders  are  iron 
and  tin. 

But  what  has  this  to  do  with  earth  or  with  agri- 


A  THEORY 


133 


culture  ?  The  most  important  point  in  the  work  of 
the  white  ant  remains  to  be  noted.  I  have  already 
said  that  the  white  ant  is  never  seen.  Why  he 
should  have  such  a  repugnance  to  being  looked  at 
is  at  first  sight  a  mystery,  seeing  that  he  himself  is 
stone  blind.  But  his  coyness  is  really  due  to  the 
desire  for  self-protection,  for  the  moment  his  juicy 
body  shows  itself  above  ground  there  are  a  dozen 
enemies  waiting  to  devour  it.  And  yet  the  white 
ant  can  never  procure  any  food  until  it  comes  above 
ground.  Nor  will  it  meet  the  case  for  the  insect  to 
come  to  the  surface  under  the  shadow  of  night. 
Night  in  the  tropics,  so  far  as  animal  life  is  con- 
cerned, is  as  the  day.  It  is  the  great  feeding  time, 
the  great  fighting  time,  the  carnival  of  the  carnivores, 
and  of  all  beasts,  birds,  and  insects  of  prey  from  the 
least  to  the  greatest.  It  is  clear  then  that  darkness 
is  no  protection  to  the  white  ant ;  and  yet  without 
coming  out  of  the  ground  it  cannot  live.  How  does 
it  solve  the  difficulty  ?  It  takes  the  ground  out 
along  with  it.  I  have  seen  white  ants  working  on 
the  top  of  a  high  tree,  and  yet  they  were  under- 
ground. They  took  up  some  of  the  ground  with 
them  to  the  tree-top  ;  just  as  the  Esquimaux  heap 
up  snow,  building  it  into  the  low  tunnel -huts  in 
which  they  live,  so  the  white  ants  collect  earth,  only 


134 


THE  WHITE  ANT 


in  this  case  not  from  the  surface  but  from  some 
depth  underneath  the  ground,  and  plaster  it  into 
tunnelled  ways.  Occasionally  these  run  along  the 
ground,  but  more  often  mount  in  endless  ramifica- 
tions to  the  top  of  trees,  meandering  along  every 
branch  and  twig,  and  here  and  there  debouching  into 
large  covered  chambers  which  occupy  half  the  girth 
of  the  trunk.  Millions  of  trees  in  some  districts  are 
thus  fantastically  plastered  over  with  tubes,  galleries, 
and  chambers  of  earth,  and  many  pounds  weight  of 
subsoil  must  be  brought  up  for  the  mining  of  even  a 
single  tree.  The  building  material  is  conveyed  by 
the  insects  up  a  central  pipe  with  which  all  the 
galleries  communicate,  and  which  at  the  downward 
end  connects  with  a  series  of  subterranean  passages 
leading  deep  into  the  earth.  The  method  of  building 
the  tunnels  and  covered  ways  is  as  follows  : — At  the 
foot  of  a  tree  the  tiniest  hole  cautiously  opens  in  the 
ground  close  to  the  bark.  A  small  head  appears 
with  a  grain  of  earth  clasped  in  its  jaws.  Against 
the  tree-trunk  this  earth-grain  is  deposited,  and  the 
head  is  withdrawn.  Presently  it  reappears  with 
another  grain  of  earth,  this  is  laid  beside  the  first, 
rammed  tight  against  it,  and  again  the  builder  de- 
scends underground  for  more.  The  third  grain  is 
not  placed  against  the  tree,  but  against  the  former 


A,  jMale.    B,  Worker.    C,  Soldier.    D,  Fecundated  Female  of  Termes  bellicosus,  natural 
size,  surrounded  by  "Workers." 

Page  134. 


A  THEORY 


137 


grain  ;  a  fourth,  a  fifth,  and  a  sixth  follow,  and  the 
plan  of  the  foundation  begins  to  suggest  itself  as 
soon  as  these  are  in  position.  The  stones  or  grains 
or  pellets  of  earth  are  arranged  in  a  semicircular 
wall,  the  termite,  now  assisted  by  three  or  four 
others,  standing  in  the  middle  between  the  sheltering 
wall  and  the  tree,  and  working  briskly  with  head  and 
mandible  to  strengthen  the  position.  The  wall  in 
fact  forms  a  small  moon-rampart,  and  as  it  grows 
higher  and  higher  it  soon  becomes  evident  that  it  is 
going  to  grow  from  a  low  battlement  into  a  long 
perpendicular  tunnel  running  up  the  side  of  the 
tree.  The  workers,  safely  ensconced  inside,  are  now 
carrying  up  the  structure  with  great  rapidity,  dis- 
appearing in  turn  as  soon  as  they  have  laid  their 
stone  and  rushing  off  to  bring  up  another.  The 
way  in  which  the  building  is  done  is  extremely 
curious,  and  one  could  watch  the  movement  of  these 
wonderful  little  masons  by  the  hour.  Each  stone  as 
it  is  brought  to  the  top  is  first  of  all  covered  with 
mortar.  Of  course,  without  this  the  whole  tunnel 
would  crumble  into  dust  before  reaching  the  height 
of  half  an  inch  ;  but  the  termite  pours  over  the  stone 
a  moist  sticky  secretion,  turning  the  grain  round  and 
round  with  its  mandibles  until  the  whole  is  covered 
with  slime.     Then  it  places  the  stone  with  great 


138 


THE  WHITE  ANT 


care  upon  the  top  of  the  wall,  works  it  about  vigor- 
ously for  a  moment  or  two  till  it  is  well  jammed 
into  its  place,  and  then  starts  off  instantly  for 
another  load.- 

Peering  over  the  growing  wall,  one  soon  discovers 
one,  two,  or  more  termites  of  a  somewhat  larger 
build,  considerably  longer,  and  with  a  very  different 
arrangement  of  the  parts  of  the  head,  and  especially 
of  the  mandibles.  These  important -looking  indi- 
viduals saunter  about  the  rampart  in  the  most 
leisurely  way,  but  yet  with  a  certain  air  of  business, 
as  if  perhaps  the  one  was  the  master  ot  works  and 
the  other  the  architect.  But  closer  observation 
suggests  that  they  are  in  no  wise  superintending 
operations,  nor  in  any  immediate  way  contributing  to 
the  structure,  for  they  take  not  the  slightest  notice 
either  of  the  workers  or  the  works.  They  are  posted 
there  in  fact  as  sentries,  and  there  they  stand,  or 
promenade  about,  at  the  mouth  of  every  tunnel,  like 
sister  Ann,  to  see  if  anybody  is  coming.  Sometimes 
somebody  does  come  in  the  shape  of  another  ant — 
the  real  ant  this  time,  not  the  defenceless  Neitr- 
opteron,  but  some  valiant  and  belted  knight  from  the 
warlike  FonnicidcE.  Singly,  or  in  troops,  this  rapa- 
cious little  insect,  fearless  in  its  chitinous  coat  of 
mail,  charges  down  the  tree-trunk,  its  antennae  waving 


A  THEORY 


139 


defiance  to  the  enemy,  and  its  cruel  mandibles  thirst- 
ing for  termite  blood.  The  worker  white  ant  is  a 
poor  defenceless  creature,  and,  blind  and  unarmed, 
would  fall  an  immediate  prey  to  these  well-drilled 
banditti,  who  forage  about  in  every  tropical  forest 
in  unnumbered  legion.  But  at  the  critical  moment, 
like  Goliath  from  the  Philistines,  the  soldier  termite 
advances  to  the  fight.  With  a  few  sweeps  of  its 
scythe-like  jaws  it  clears  the  ground,  and  while  the 
attacking  party  is  carrying  off  its  dead,  the  builders, 
unconscious  of  the  fray,  quietly  continue  their  work. 
To  every  hundred  workers  in  a  white  ant  colony, 
which  numbers  many  thousands  of  individuals,  there 
are  perhaps  two  of  these  fighting  men.  The  division 
of  labour  here  is  very  wonderful,  and  the  fact  that 
besides  these  two  specialised  forms  there  are  in  every 
nest  two  other  kinds  of  the  same  insect,  the  kings 
and  queens,  shows  the  remarkable  height  to  which 
civilisation  in  these  communities  has  attained. 

But  where  is  this  tunnel  going  to,  and  what 
object  have  the  insects  in  view  in  ascending  this 
lofty  tree  ?  Thirty  feet  from  the  ground,  across 
innumerable  forks,  at  the  end  of  a  long  branch,  are 
a  few  feet  of  dead  wood.  How  the  ants  know  it  is 
there,  how  they  know  its  sap  has  dried  up,  and  that 
it  is  now  fit  for  the  termites'  food,  is  a  mystery. 


I40 


THE  WHITE  ANT 


Possibly  they  do  not  know,  and  are  only  prospecting 
on  the  chance.  The  fact  that  they  sometimes  make 
straight  for  the  decaying  limb  argues  in  these  in- 
stances a  kind  of  definite  instinct  ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  fact  that  in  most  cases  the  whole  tree, 
in  every  branch  and  limb,  is  covered  with  termite 
tunnels,  would  show  perhaps  that  they  work  most 
commonly  on  speculation,  while  the  number  of  aban- 
doned tunnels,  ending  on  a  sound  branch  in  a  cul  de 
sac,  proves  how  often  they  must  suffer  the  usual  dis- 
appointments of  all  such  adventurers.  The  extent 
to  which  these  insects  carry  on  their  tunnelling  is 
quite  incredible  until  one  has  seen  it  in  nature  with 
his  own  eyes.  The  tunnels  are  perhaps  about  the 
thickness  of  a  small -sized  gas -pipe,  but  there  are 
junctions  here  and  there  of  large  dimensions,  and 
occasionally  patches  of  earthwork  are  found  embrac- 
ing nearly  the  whole  trunk  for  some  feet.  The  out- 
side of  these  tunnels,  which  are  never  quite  straight, 
but  wander  irregularly  along  stem  and  branch, 
resembles  in  texture  a  coarse  sandpaper  ;  and  the 
colour,  although  this  naturally  varies  with  the  soil,  is 
usually  a  reddish  brown.  The  quantity  of  earth  and 
mud  plastered  over  a  single  tree  is  often  enormous  ; 
and  v/hen  one  thinks  that  it  is  not  only  an  isolated 
specimen  here  and  there  that  is  frescoed  in  this  way. 


A  THEORY 


but  often  the  whole  of  the  trees  of  a  forest,  some  idea 
will  be  formed  of  the  magnitude  of  the  operations  of 
these  insects  and  the  extent  of  their  influence  upon 
the  soil  which  they  are  thus  ceaselessly  transporting 
from  underneath  the  ground. 

In  travelling  through  the  great  forests  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  or  of  the  Western  States,  the 
broken  branches  and  fallen  trunks  strewing  the 
ground  breast-high  with  all  sorts  of  decaying  litter 
frequently  make  locomotion  impossible.  To  attempt 
to  ride  through  these  western  forests,  with  their  mesh- 
work  of  interlocked  branches  and  decaying  trunks, 
is  often  out  of  the  question,  and  one  has  to  dismount 
and  drag  his  horse  after  him  as  if  he  were  clamber- 
ing through  a  woodyard.  But  in  an  African  forest 
not  a  fallen  branch  is  seen.  One  is  struck  at  first 
at  a  certain  clean  look  about  the  great  forests  of  the 
interior,  a  novel  and  unaccountable  cleanness,  as  if 
the  forest-bed  was  carefully  swept  and  dusted  daily 
by  unseen  elves.  And  so,  indeed,  it  is.  Scavengers 
of  a  hundred  kinds  remove  decaying  animal  matter 
— from  the  carcase  of  a  fallen  elephant  to  the  broken 
wing  of  a  gnat — eating  it,  or  carrying  it  out  of  sight, 
and  burying  it  on  the  deodorising  earth.  And  these 
countless  millions  of  termites  perform  a  similar 
function  for  the  vegetable  world,  making  away  with 


THE  WHITE  ANT 


all  plants  and  trees,  all  stems,  twigs,  and  tissues,  the 
moment  the  finger  of  decay  strikes  the  signal.  Con- 
stantly in  these  woods  one  comes  across  what  appear 
to  be  sticks  and  branches  and  bundles  of  faggots, 
but  when  closely  examined  they  are  seen  to  be  mere 
casts  in  mud.     From  these  hollow  tubes,  which  pre- 


serve the  original  form  of  the  branch  down  to  the 
minutest  knot  or  fork,  the  ligneous  tissue  is  often 
entirely  removed,  while  others  are  met  with  in  all 
stages  of  demolition.  There  is  the  section  of 
an  actual  specimen,  which  is  not  yet  completely 
destroyed,  and  from  which  the  mode  of  attack  may 
be  easily  seen.  The  insects  start  apparently  from 
two  centres.     One  company  attacks  the  inner  bark, 


A  THEORY 


145 


which  is  the  favourite  morsel,  leaving  the  coarse 
outer  bark  untouched,  or  more  usually  replacing  it 
with  grains  of  earth,  atom  by  atom,  as  they  eat  it 
away.  The  inner  bark  is  gnawed  off  likewise  as 
they  go  along,  but  the  woody  tissue  beneath  is 
allowed  to  remain  to  form  a  protective  sheath  for 
the  second  company  who  begin  work  at  the  centre. 
This  second  contingent  eats  its  way  outward  and 
onward,  leaving  a  thin  tube  of  the  outer  wood  to 
the  last,  as  props  to  the  mine,  till  they  have  finished 
the  main  excavation.  When  a  fallen  trunk  lying 
upon  the  ground  is  the  object  of  attack,  the  outer 
cylinder  is  frequently  left  quite  intact,  and  it  is  only 
when  one  tries  to  drag  it  off  to  his  camp-fire  that 
he  finds  to  his  disgust  that  he  is  dealing  with  a 
mere  hollow  tube  a  few  lines  in  thickness  filled  up 
with  mud. 

But  the  works  above  ground  represent  only  a 
part  of  the  labours  of  these  slow-moving  but  most 
industrious  of  creatures.  The  arboreal  tubes  are 
only  the  prolongation  of  a  much  more  elaborate 
system  of  subterranean  tunnels,  which  extend  over 
large  areas  and  mine  the  earth  sometimes  to  a  depth 
of  many  feet  or  even  yards. 

The  material  excavated  from  these  underground 
galleries  and  from  the  succession  of  domed  chambers 

I. 


146 


THE  WHITE  ANT 


—  used  as  nurseries  or  granaries — to  which  they 
lead,  has  to  be  thrown  out  upon  the  surface.  And 
it  is  from  these  materials  that  the  huge  ant-hills  are 
reared,  which  form  so  distinctive  a  feature  of  the 
African  landscape.  These  heaps  and  mounds  are 
so  conspicuous  that  they  may  be  seen  for  miles,  and 
so  numerous  are  they  and  so  useful  as  cover  to  the 


sportsman,  that  without  them  in  certain  districts 
hunting  would  be  impossible.  The  first  things, 
indeed,  to  strike  the  traveller  in  entering  the  interior 
are  the  mounds  of  the  white  ant,  now  dotting  the 
plain  in  groups  like  a  small  cemetery,  now  rising 
into  mounds,  singly  or  in  clusters,  each  thirty  or  forty 
feet  in  diameter  and  ten  or  fifteen  in  height ;  or, 
again,  standing  out  against  the  sky  like  obelisks, 
their  bare  sides  carved  and  fluted  into  all  sorts  of 
fantastic  shapes.  In  India  these  ant-heaps  seldom 
attain  a  height  of  more  than  a  couple  of  feet,  but  in 


A  THEORY 


149 


Central  Africa  they  form  veritable  hills,  and  contain 
many  tons  of  earth.  The  brick  houses  of  the  Scotch 
mission-station  on  Lake  Nyassa  have  all  been  built 
out  of  a  single  ants'  nest,  and  the  quarry  from  which 
the  material  has  been  derived  forms  a  pit  beside  the 
settlement  some  dozen  feet  in  depth.  A  supply  of 
bricks,  as  large  again,  could  probably  still  be  taken 
from  this  convenient  depot ;  and  the  missionaries  on 
Lake  Tanganyika  and  onwards  to  Victoria  Nyanza 
have  been  similarly  indebted  to  the  labours  of  the 
termites.  In  South  Africa  the  Zulus  and  Kaffirs 
pave  all  their  huts  with  white-ant  earth  ;  and  during 
the  Boer  war  our  troops  in  Praetoria,  by  scooping 
out  the  interior  from  the  smaller  beehive-shaped  ant- 
heaps,  and  covering  the  top  with  clay,  constantly 
used  them  as  ovens.  These  ant-heaps  may  be  said 
to  abound  over  the  whole  interior  of  Africa,  and 
there  are  several  distinct  species.  The  most  peculiar, 
as  well  as  the  most  ornate,  is  a  small  variety  from 
one  to  two  feet  in  height,  which  occurs  in  myriads 
along  the  shores  of  Lake  Tanganyika.  It  is  built 
in  symmetrical  tiers,  and  resembles  a  pile  of  small 
rounded  hats,  one  above  another,  the  rims  depending 
like  eaves,  and  sheltering  the  body  of  the  hill  from 
rain.  To  estimate  the  amount  of  earth  per  acre 
raised  from  the  water-line  of  the  subsoil  by  white 


THE  WHITE  ANT 


ants  would  not  in  some  districts  be  an  impossible 
task  ;  and  it  would  be  found,  probably,  that  the 
quantity  at  least  equalled  that  manipulated  annually 
in  temperate  regions  by  the  earthworm. 

These  mounds,  however,  are  more  than  mere 
waste-heaps.  Like  the  corresponding  region  under- 
ground, they  are  built  into  a  meshwork  of  tunnels, 
galleries,  and  chambers,  where  the  social  interests  of 
the  community  are  attended  to.  The  most  spacious 
of  these  chambers,  usually  far  underground,  is  very 
properly  allocated  to  the  head  of  the  society,  the 
queen.  The  queen-termite  is  a  very  rare  insect,  and 
as  there  are  seldom  more  than  one,  or  at  most  two, 
to  a  colony,  and  as  the  royal  apartments  are  hidden 
far  in  the  earth,  few  persons  have  ever  seen  a  queen, 
and  indeed  most,  if  they  did  happen  to  come  across 
it,  from  its  very  singular  appearance,  would  refuse  to 
believe  that  it  had  any  connection  with  white  ants. 
It  possesses,  indeed,  the  true  termite  head,  but  there 
the  resemblance  to  the  other  members  of  the  family 
stops,  for  the  size  of  the  head  bears  about  the  same 
proportion  to  the  rest  of  the  body  as  does  the  tuft 
on  his  Glengarry  bonnet  to  a  six-foot  Highlander. 
The  phenomenal  corpulence  of  the  royal  body  in  the 
case  of  the  queen-termite  is  possibly  due  in  part  to 
v/ant  of  exercise,  for  once  seated  upon  her  throne 


A  THEORY 


153 


she  never  stirs  to  the  end  of  her  days.  She  lies 
there,  a  large,  loathsome,  cylindrical  package,  two  or 
three  inches  long,  in  shape  like  a  sausage,  and  as 
white  as  a  bolster.  Her  one  duty  in  life  is  to  lay 
eggs,  and  it  must  be  confessed  she  discharges  her 
function  with  complete  success,  for  in  a  single  day 
her  progeny  often  amounts  to  many  thousands,  and 
for  months  this  enormous  fecundity  never  slackens. 
The  body  increases  slowly  in  size,  and  through  the 
transparent  skin  the  long  folded  ovary  may  be 
seen,  with  the  eggs,  impelled  by  a  peristaltic  motion, 
passing  onward  for  delivery  to  the  workers  who  are 
waiting  to  carry  them  to  the  nurseries  where  they 
are  hatched.  Assiduous  attention,  meantime,  is  paid 
to  the  queen  by  other  workers,  who  feed  her  diligently, 
with  much  self-denial  stuffing  her  with  morsel  after 
morsel  from  their  own  jaws.  A  guard  of  honour  in 
the  shape  of  a  few  of  the  larger  soldier-ants  is  also 
in  attendance  as  a  last  and  almost  unnecessary  pre- 
caution. In  addition,  finally,  to  the  soldiers,  workers, 
and  queen,  the  royal  chamber  has  also  one  other 
inmate — the  king.  He  is  a  very  ordinary-looking 
insect,  about  the  same  size  as  the  soldiers,  but  the 
arrangement  of  the  parts  of  the  head  and  body  is 
widely  different,  and  like  the  queen  he  is  furnished 
with  eyes. 


154 


THE  WHITE  ANT 


Let  me  now  attempt  to  show  the  way  in  which 
the  work  of  the  termites  bears  upon  the  natural 
agriculture  and  geology  of  the  tropics.  Looking  at 
the  question  from  the  large  point  of  view,  the  general 
fact  to  be  noted  is,  that  the  soil  of  the  tropics  is  in 
a  state  of  perpetual  motion.  Instead  of  an  upper 
crust,  moistened  to  a  paste  by  the  autumn  rains,  and 
then  baked  hard  as  adamant  in  the  sun  ;  and  an 
under  soil,  hermetically  sealed  from  the  air  and  light, 
and  inaccessible  to  all  the  natural  manures  derived 
from  the  decomposition  of  organic  matters — these 
two  layers  being  eternally  fixed  in  their  relation  to 
one  another — we  have  a  slow  and  continued  trans- 
ference of  the  layers  always  taking  place.  Not  only 
to  cover  their  depredations,  but  to  dispose  of  the 
earth  excavated  from  the  underground  galleries,  the 
termites  are  constantly  transporting  the  deeper  and 
exhausted  soils  to  the  surface.  Thus  there  is,  so  to 
speak,  a  constant  circulation  of  earth  in  the  tropics, 
a  ploughing  and  harrowing,  not  furrow  by  furrow 
and  clod  by  clod,  but  pellet  by  pellet  and  grain  by 
grain. 

Some  idea  of  the  extent  to  which  the  underlying 
earth  of  the  tropical  forests  is  thus  brought  to  the 
surface  will  have  been  gathered  from  the  facts 
already  described ;  but  no  one  who  has  not  seen  it 


A  THEORY 


155 


with  his  own  eyes  can  appreciate  the  gigantic 
magnitude  of  the  process.  Occasionally  one  sees  a 
whole  trunk  or  branch,  and  sometimes  almost  an 
entire  tree,  so  swathed  in  red  mud  that  the  bark  is 
almost  completely  concealed,  the  tree  looking  as  if  it 
had  been  taken  out  bodily  and  dipped  in  some 
crystallising  solution.  It  is  not  only  one  tree  here 
and  there  that  exhibits  the  w^ork  of  the  white  ant, 
but  in  many  places  the  whole  forest  is  so  coloured 
with  dull  red  tunnels  and  patches  as  to  give  a 
distinct  tone  to  the  landscape — an  effect  which,  at 
a  little  distance,  reminds  one  of  the  abend-roth  in 
a  pine  forest  among  the  Alps.  Some  regions  are 
naturally  more  favourable  than  others  to  the  opera- 
tions of  the  termites,  and  to  those  who  have  only 
seen  them  at  work  in  India  or  in  the  lower  districts 
of  Africa  this  statement  may  seem  an  exaggeration. 
But  on  one  range  of  forest-clad  hills  on  the  great 
plateau  between  Lake  Nyassa  and  Tanganyika  I 
have  walked  for  miles  through  trees,  every  one  of 
which,  without  exception,  was  ramified,  more  or  less, 
with  tunnels.  The  elevation  of  this  locality  was 
about  5000  feet  above  the  sea,  and  the  distance 
from  the  equator  some  9^ ;  but  nowhere  else  have  I 
seen  a  spot  where  the  termites  were  so  completely 
masters  of  the  situation  as  here.     If  it  is  the  case 


56 


THE  WHITE  ANT 


that  in  these,  the  most  elevated  regions  of  Central 
Africa,  the  termite  colonies  attain  their  maximum 
development,  the  fact  is  of  much  interest  in  connec- 
tion with  the  geological  and  agricultural  function 
which  they  seem  to  serve  ;  for  it  is  here  precisely, 


WHITE  ANT  HILL. 


before  the  rivers  have  gathered  volume,  that  alluvium 
is  most  wanting  ;  it  is  here  that  the  tiny  headwaters 
of  these  same  rivers  collect  the  earth  for  subsequent 
distribution  over  the  distant  plains  and  coasts  ;  and 
though  the  white  ant  may  itself  have  no  power,  in 


THE  WHITE  AXT 


157 


the  first  instance,  of  creating  soil,  as  a  denuding  and 
transporting  agent  its  ministry  can  scarcely  be 
exaggerated.  If  this  is  its  function  in  the  economy 
of  nature,  it  is  certainly  clear  that  the  insect  to  which 
this  task  is  assigned  is  planted  where,  of  all  places, 
it  can  most  effectively  fulfil  the  end. 

The  direct  relation  of  the  termites'  work  to 
denudation  will  still  further  appear  if  we  try  to 
imagine  the  effect  upon  these  accumulations  of  earth- 
pellets  and  grains  of  an  ordinary  rainy  season.  For 
two  or  three  months  in  the  tropics,  though  intermit- 
tently, the  rains  lash  the  forests  and  soils  with  a  fury 
such  as  we,  fortunately,  have  little  idea  of.  And 
though  the  earthworks,  and  especially  the  larger 
ant-hills,  have  marvellous  resisting  properties,  they 
are  not  invulnerable,  and  must  ultimately  succumb 
to  denuding  agents.  The  tunnels,  being  only  required 
for  a  temporary  purpose,  are  made  substantial  enough 
only  to  last  the  occasion.  And  in  spite  of  the 
natural  glue  which  cements  the  pellets  of  earth 
together,  the  structure,  as  a  whole,  after  a  little 
exposure,  becomes  extremely  friable,  and  crumbles 
to  pieces  at  a  touch.  When  the  earth-tubes  crumble 
into  dust  in  the  summer  season  the  debris  is  scattered 
over  the  country  by  the  wind,  and  in  this  way  tends 
to  increase  and  refresh  the  soil.     During  the  rains, 


158 


THE  WHITE  ANT 


again,  it  is  washed  into  the  rivulets  and  borne  away 
to  fertihse  with  new  alluvium  the  distant  valleys,  or 
carried  downward  to  the  ocean,  where,  along  the  coast 
line,  it  "  sows  the  dust  of  continents  to  be."  Hero- 
dotus, with  equal  poetic  and  scientific  truth,  describes 
Egypt  as  "  the  gift  of  the  Nile."  Possibly  had  he 
lived  to-day  he  might  have  carried  his  vision  farther 
back  still,  and  referred  some  of  it  to  the  labours  of 
the  humble  termites  in  the  forest  slopes  about. 
Victoria  Nyanza. 


WHITE  ANT  HILLS. 


VII 
MIMICRY 

THE  WAYS  OF  AFRICAN  INSECTS 


VII 


MIMICRY 
THE  WAYS  OF  AFRICAN  INSECTS 

IMICRY  is  imposture  in  nature.     Carlyle  in 


-^^ ^  his  blackest  visions  of  shams  and  humbugs  " 
among  human  kind  never  saw  anything  so  finished 
in  hypocrisy  as  the  naturalist  now  finds  in  every 
tropical  forest.  There  are  to  be  seen  creatures,  not 
singly,  but  in  tens  of  thousands,  whose  very  appear- 
ance, down  to  the  minutest  spot  and  wrinkle,  is  an 
affront  to  truth,  whose  every  attitude  is  a  pose  for  a 
purpose,  and  whose  whole  life  is  a  sustained  lie. 
Before  these  masterpieces  of  deception  the  most  in- 
genious of  human  impositions  are  vulgar  and  trans- 
parent. Fraud  is  not  only  the  great  rule  of  life  in 
a  tropical  forest,  but  the  one  condition  of  it. 

Although  the  extraordinary  phenomena  of  mimicry 
are  now  pretty  generally  known  to  science,  few 
workers  have  yet  had  the  opportunity  of  studying 


M 


1 62  MIMICRY 


them  in  nature.  But  no  study  in  natural  history 
depends  more  upon  observation  in  the  field  ;  for 
while  in  the  case  of  a  few  mimetic  forms — the  Heli- 
conidcey  for  example — the  imitated  form  is  also  an 
insect,  and  the  two  specimens  may  be  laid  side  by 
side  in  the  cabinet  at  home,  the  great  majority  of 
mimetic  insects  are  imitations  of  objects  in  the 
environment  which  cannot  be  brought  into  com- 
parison with  them  in  the  drawers  of  a  museum. 
Besides  this,  it  is  not  only  the  form  but  the  behaviour 
of  the  mimetic  insect,  its  whole  habit  and  habitat, 
that  have  to  be  considered  ;  so  that  mere  museum 
contributions  to  mimicry  are  almost  useless  without 
the  amplest  supplement  from  the  field  naturalist  I 
make  no  further  apology,  therefore,  for  transcribing 
here  a  few  notes  bearing  upon  this  subject  from 
journals  written  during  a  recent  survey  of  a  region 
in  the  heart  of  Africa  —  the  Nyassa-Tanganyika 
plateau — which  has  not  yet  been  described  or  visited 
by  any  naturalist 

The  preliminaries  of  the  subject  can  be  mastered 
in  a  moment  even  by  the  uninitiated,  and  I  may 
therefore  begin  with  a  short  preface  on  animal 
colouring  in  general.  Mimicry  depends  on  resem- 
blances between  an  animal  and  some  other  object  in 
its  environment  of  which  it  is  a  practical  gain  to  the 


THE  WA  YS  OF  AFRICAN  INSECTS 


163 


creature  to  be  a  more  or  less  accurate  copy.  The 
resemblance  may  be  to  any  object,  animate  or  inani- 
mate. It  may  be  restricted  to  colour,  or  it  may 
extend  to  form,  and  even  to  habit  ;  but  of  these  the 
first  is  by  far  the  most  important. 

Apart  from  sexual  selection,  colour  in  animals 
mainly  serves  two  functions.  It  is  either  "  protective  " 
or  "  warning."  The  object  of  the  first  is  to  render 
the  animal  inconspicuous,  the  object  of  the  second 
is  the  opposite — to  make  it  conspicuous.  Why  it 
should  be  an  object  with  some  animals  to  be  palpably 
exposed  will  be  apparent  from  the  following  familiar 
instance  of  "  warning "  coloration.  There  are  two 
great  families  of  butterflies,  the  Danaidce  and  AcraiedcB, 
which  are  inedible  owing  to  the  presence  in  their 
bodies  of  acrid  and  unwholesome  juices.  Now  to 
swallow  one  of  these  creatures — and  birds,  monkeys, 
lizards,  and  spiders  are  very  fond  of  butterflies — 
would  be  gratuitous.  It  would  be  disappointing  to 
the  eater,  who  would  have  to  disgorge  his  prey  im- 
mediately, and  it  would  be  an  unnecessary  sacrifice 
of  the  subject  of  the  experiment.  These  butterflies, 
therefore,  must  have  their  disagreeableness  in  some 
way  advertised,  and  so  they  dress  up  with  exceptional 
eccentricity,  distinguishing  themselves  by  loud  patterns 
and  brilliant  colourings,  so  that  the  bird,  the  monkey, 


164 


MIMICRY 


and  the  rest  can  take  in  the  situation  at  a  glance. 
These  animated  danger-signals  float  serenely  about 
the  forests  with  the  utmost  coolness  in  the  broadest 
daylight,  leisureliness,  defiance,  and  self-complacency 
marking  their  every  movement,  while  their  duskier 
brethren  have  to  hurry  through  the  glades  in  terror 
of  their  lives.  For  the  same  reason,  well-armed  or 
stinging  insects  are  always  conspicuously  ornamented 
with  warning  colours.  The  expense  of  eating  a  wasp, 
for  instance,  is  too  great  to  lead  to  a  second  invest- 
ment in  the  same  insect,  and  wasps  therefore  have 
been  rendered  as  showy  as  possible  so  that  they  may 
be  at  once  seen  and  as  carefully  avoided.  The  same 
law  applies  to  bees,  dragonflies,  and  other  gaudy 
forms  ;  and  it  may  be  taken  as  a  rule  that  all  gaily- 
coloured  insects  belong  to  one  or  other  of  these  two 
classes  :  that  is,  that  they  are  either  bad  eating  or 
bad-stingers.  Now  the  remarkable  fact  is  that  all 
these  brilliant  and  unwholesome  creatures  are  closely 
imitated  in  outward  apparel  by  other  creatures  not 
themselves  protected  by  acrid  juices,  but  which  thus' 
share  the  same  immunity.  That  these  are  cases  of 
mimicry  is  certain  from  many  considerations,  not  the 
least  striking  of  which  is  that  frequently  one  of  the 
sexes  is  protectively  coloured  and  not  the  other. 
The  brilliant  colouring  of  poisonous  snakes  is 


THE  WAYS  OF  AFRICAN  INSECTS  165 


sometimes  set  down  by  naturalists  to  "warning,"  but 
the  details  of  colouring  among  reptiles  have  never 
been  thoroughly  worked  out.  The  difficulty  suggests 
itself  that  if  the  vivid  yellows  and  oranges  of  some 
snakes  are  meant  to  warn  oft  dangerous  animals,  the 
same  conspicuousness  would  warn  oft"  the  animals  on 
which  the  venomous  forms  prey.  Thus,  while  being 
hunted,  a  showy  skin  might  be  of  advantage  to  the 
snake  ;  in  hunting  it  would  be  an  equal  disadvantage. 
But  when  one  watches  on  the  spot  the  manner  in 
which  snakes  really  do  their  hunting,  it  becomes 
probable  that  the  colouring,  vivid  and  peculiar  as  it 
is,  in  most  cases  is  designed  simply  to  aid  conceal- 
ment. One  of  the  most  beautiful  and  ornate  of  all 
the  tropical  reptiles  is  the  puff-adder.  This  animal, 
the  bite  of  which  is  certain  death,  is  from  three  to 
five  feet  long,  and  disproportionately  thick,  being  in 
some  parts  almost  as  thick  as  the  lower  part  of  the 
thigh.  The  whole  body  is  ornamented  with  strange 
devices  in  green,  yellow,  and  black,  and  lying  in  a 
museum  its  glittering  coils  certainly  form  a  most 
striking  object.  But  in  nature  the  puff-adder  has  a 
very  different  background.  It  is  essentially  a  forest 
animal,  its  true  habitat  being  among  the  fallen  leaves 
in  the  deep  shade  of  the  trees  by  the  banks  of 
streams.     Now  in  such  a  position,  at  the  distance  of 


MIMICRY 


a  foot  or  two,  its  appearance  so  exactly  resembles 
the  forest  bed  as  to  be  almost  indistinguishable  from 
it.  I  was  once  just  throwing  myself  down  under  a 
tree  to  rest  when,  stooping  to  clear  the  spot,  I  noticed 
a  peculiar  pattern  among  the  leaves.  I  started  back 
in  horror  to  find  a  puff-adder  of  the  largest  size,  its 
thick  back  only  visible  and  its  fangs  within  a  few 
inches  of  my  face  as  I  stooped.  It  was  lying  con- 
cealed among  fallen  leaves  so  like  itself  that,  but  for 
the  exceptional  caution  which  in  African  travel 
becomes  a  habit,  I  should  certainly  have  sat  down 
upon  it,  and  to  sit  down  upon  a  puff-adder  is  to  sit 
down  for  the  last  time.  I  think  this  coloration  in 
the  puff-adder  is  more  than  that  of  warning,  and  that 
this  semi-somnolent  attitude  is  not  always  the  mere 
attitude  of  repose.  This  reptile  lay  lengthwise,  con- 
cealed, all  but  a  few  inches,  among  the  withered 
leaves.  Now  the  peculiarity  of  the  puff-adder  is  that 
it  strikes  backward.  Lying  on  the  ground,  therefore, 
it  commands  as  it  were  its  whole  rear,  and  the  moment 
any  part  is  touched,  the  head  doubles  backward  with 
inconceivable  swiftness,  and  the  poison-fangs  close 
upon  their  victim.  The  puff-adder  in  this  way  forms 
a  sort  of  horrid  trap  set  in  the  woods  which  may  be 
altogether  unperceived  till  it  shuts  with  a  sudden 
spring  upon  its  prey. 


THE  WA  YS  OF  AFRICAN  INSECTS 


167 


But  that  the  main  function  of  colouring  is  pro- 
tection may  be  decided  from  the  simplest  observation 
of  animal  life  in  any  part  of  the  world.  Even  among 
the  larger  animals,  which  one  might  suppose  inde- 
pendent of  subterfuge  and  whose  appearance  any- 
where but  in  their  native  haunts  suggests  a  very 
opposite  theory,  the  harmony  of  colour  with  environ- 
ment is  always  more  or  less  striking.  When  we 
look,  for  instance,  at  the  coat  of  a  zebra  with  its 
thunder -and -lightning  pattern  of  black  and  white 
stripes,  we  should  think  such  a  conspicuous  object 
designed  to  court  rather  than  to  elude  attention. 
But  the  effect  in  nature  is  just  the  opposite.  The 
black  and  white  somehow  take  away  the  sense  of  a 
solid  body  altogether  ;  the  two  colours  seem  to  blend 
into  the  most  inconspicuous  gray,  and  at  close  quarters 
the  effect  is  as  of  bars  of  light  seen  through  the 
branches  of  shrubs.  I  have  found  myself  in  the 
forest  gazing  at  what  I  supposed  to  be  a  solitary 
zebra,  its  presence  betrayed  by  some  motion  due  to 
my  approach,  and  suddenly  realised  that  I  was  sur- 
rounded by  an  entire  herd  which  were  all  invisible 
until  they  moved.  The  motionlessness  of  wild  game 
in  the  field  when  danger  is  near  is  well  known  ;  and 
every  hunter  is  aware  of  the  difficulty  of  seeing  even 
the  largest  animals  though  they  are  just  standing  in 


MIMIC K  V 


front  of  him.  The  tiger,  whose  stripes  are  obviously 
meant  to  imitate  the  reeds  of  the  jungle  in  which  it 
lurks,  is  nowhere  found  in  Africa  ;  but  its  beautiful 
cousin,  the  leopard,  abounds  in  these  forests,  and  its 
spotted  pelt  probably  conveys  the  same  sense  of 
indistinctness  as  in  the  case  of  the  zebra.  The 
hippopotamus  seems  to  find  the  deep  water  of  the 
rivers — where  it  spends  the  greater  portion  of  its 
time — a  sufficient  protection  ;  but  the  crocodile  is 
marvellously  concealed  by  its  knotted  mud-coloured 
hide,  and  it  is  often  quite  impossible  to  tell  at  a 
distance  whether  the  objects  lying  along  the  river 
banks  are  alligators  or  fallen  logs. 

But  by  far  the  most  wonderful  examples  of  pro- 
tective adjustments  are  found  where  the  further 
disguise  of  form  is  added  to  that  of  colour,  and  to 
this  only  is  the  term  mimicry  strictly  applicable. 
The  pitch  of  intricate  perfection  to  which  mimicry 
has  attained  in  an  undisturbed  and  unglaciated 
country  like  Central  Africa  is  so  marvellous  and 
incredible,  that  one  almost  hesitates  to  utter  what 
his  eyes  have  seen.  Before  going  to  Africa  I  was  of 
course  familiar  with  the  accounts  of  mimetic  insects 
to  be  found  in  the  works  of  Bates,  Belt,  Wallace,  and 
other  naturalists  ;  but  no  description  prepares  one  in 
the  least  for  the  surprise  which  awaits  him  when  first 


THE  WAYS  OF  AFRICAN  INSECTS  169 

he  encounters  these  species  in  nature.  My  introduc- 
tion to  them  occurred  on  the  borders  of  Lake  Shirwa 
— one  of  the  smaller  and  less  known  of  the  great 
African  lakes  —  and  I  shall  record  the  incident 
exactly  as  I  find  it  in  my  notes.  I  had  stopped 
one  day  among  some  tall  dry  grass  to  mark  a 
reading  of  the  aneroid,  when  one  of  my  men 
suddenly  shouted  "  Chirombo  !"  Chirombo  "  means 
an  inedible  beast  of  any  kind,  and  I  turned  round 
to  see  where  the  animal  was.  The  native  pointed 
straight  at  myself.  I  could  see  nothing,  but  he 
approached,  and  pointing  close  to  a  wisp  of  hay 
which  had  fallen  upon  my  coat,  repeated  "Chirombo!" 
Believing  that  it  must  be  some  insect  among  the 
hay,  I  took  it  in  my  fingers,  looked  over  it,  and  told 
him  pointedly  there  was  no  "  Chirombo "  there. 
He  smiled,  and  pointing  again  to  the  hay,  exclaimed 
"Moio!" — "It's  alive!"  The  hay  itself  was  the 
Chirombo.  I  do  not  exaggerate  when  I  say  that 
that  wisp  of  hay  was  no  more  like  an  insect  than 
my  aneroid  barometer.  I  had  mentally  resolved 
never  to  be  taken  in  by  any  of  these  mimetic  frauds ; 
I  was  incredulous  enough  to  suspect  that  the  descrip- 
tions of  Wallace  and  the  others  were  somewhat 
highly  coloured  ;  but  I  confess  to  have  been  com- 
pletely stultified  and  beaten  by  the  very  first  mimetic 


170 


MIMICRY 


form  I  met.  It  was  one  of  that  very  remarkable 
family  the  PJiasmidce,  but  surely  nowhere  else  in 
nature  could  there  be  such  another  creature.  Take 
two  inches  of  dried  yellow  grass-stalk,  such  as  one 
might  pluck  to  run  through  the  stem  of  a  pipe  ; 
then  take  six  other  pieces  nearly  as  long  and  a 
quarter  as  thick  ;  bend  each  in  the  middle  at  any 
angle  you  like,  stick  them  in  three  opposite  pairs, 
and  again  at  any  angle  you  like,  upon  the  first  grass 
stalk,  and  you  have  my  Chirombo.  When  you 
catch  him,  his  limbs  are  twisted  about  at  every  angle, 
as  if  the  whole  were  made  of  one  long  stalk  of  the 
most  delicate  grass,  hinged  in  a  dozen  places,  and 
then  gently  crushed  up  into  a  dishevelled  heap. 
Having  once  assumed  a  position,  by  a  wonderful 
instinct  he  never  moves  or  varies  one  of  his  many 
angles  by  half  a  degree.  The  way  this  insect 
keeps  up  the  delusion  is  indeed  almost  as  wonderful 
as  the  mimicry  itself ;  you  may  turn  him  about  and 
over  and  over,  but  he  is  mere  dried  grass,  and 
nothing  will  induce  him  to  acknowledge  the  animal 
kingdom  by  the  faintest  suspicion  of  spontaneous 
movement.  All  the  members  of  this  family  have 
this  power  of  shamming  death  ;  but  how  such  emaci- 
ated and  juiceless  skeletons  should  ever  presume  to 
be  alive  is  the  real  mystery.    These  Phasmidae  look 


THE  WAYS  OF  AFRICAN  INSECTS  171 


more  like  ghosts  than  hving  creatures,  and  so  slim 
are  they  that,  in  trying  to  kill  them  for  the  collecting- 
box,  the  strongest  squeeze  between  finger  and  thumb 
makes  no  more  impression  upon  them  than  it  would 
upon  fine  steel  wire,  and  one  has  to  half-guillotine 
them  against  some  hard  substance  before  any  little 
life  they  have  is  sacrificed  to  science. 

I  examined  after  this  many  thousands  of  Phas- 
midae,  Mantidae,  and  other  mimetic  forms,  and  there 
is  certainly  in  nature  no  more  curious  or  interesting 
study.  These  grass -stalk  insects  live  exclusively 
among  the  long  grass  which  occurs  in  patches  all 
over  the  forests,  and  often  reaches  a  height  of  eight 
or  ten  feet.  During  three-fourths  of  the  year  it  is 
dried  by  the  sun  into  a  straw-yellow  colour,  and  all 
the  insects  are  painted  to  match.  Although  yellow 
is  the  ground  tone  of  these  grasses,  they  are  varie- 
gated, and  especially  towards  the  latter  half  of  the 
year,  in  two  ways.  They  are  either  tinged  here  and 
there  with  red  and  brown,  like  the  autumn  colours 
at  home,  or  they  are  streaked  and  spotted  with  black 
mould  or  other  markings,  painted  by  the  finger  of 
decay.  All  these  appearances  are  closely  imitated 
by  insects.  To  complete  the  deception,  some  have 
the  antennae  developed  to  represent  blades  of  grass, 
which  are  often  from  one  to  two  inches  in  length, 


172 


MIMICRY 


and  stick  out  from  the  end  of  the  body,  one  on 
either  side,  Hke  blades  of  grass  at  the  end  of  a  stalk. 
The  favourite  attitude  of  these  insects  is  to  clasp  a 
grass-stalk,  as  if  they  were  climbing  a  pole  ;  then 
the  body  is  compressed  against  the  stem  and  held  in 
position  by  the  two  fore-limbs,  which  are  extended 
in  front  so  as  to  form  one  long  line  with  the  body, 
and  so  mixed  up  with  the  stalk  as  to  be  practically 
part  of  it.  The  four  other  legs  stand  out  anyhow  in 
rigid  spikes,  like  forks  from  the  grass,  while  the 
antennae  are  erected  at  the  top,  like  blades  coming 
off  from  a  node,  which  the  button-like  head  so  well 
resembles.  When  one  of  these  insects  springs  to  a 
new  stalk  of  grass  it  will  at  once  all  but  vanish 
before  your  eyes.  It  remains  there  perfectly  rigid, 
a  component  part  of  the  grass  itself,  its  long  legs 
crooked  and  branched  exactly  like  dried  hay,  the 
same  in  colour,  the  same  in  fineness,  and  quite 
defying  detection.  These  blades,  alike  with  limbs 
and  body,  are  variously  coloured  according  to  season 
and  habitat.  When  the  grasses  are  tinged  with 
autumn  tints  they  are  the  same  ;  and  the  colours 
run  through  many  shades,  from  the  pure  bright  red, 
such  as  tips  the  fins  of  a  perch,  to  the  deeper  claret 
colours  or  the  tawny  gold  of  port.  But  an  even 
more  singular  fact  remains  to  be  noted.    After  the 


THE  WA  YS  OF  AFRICAN  INSECTS 


173 


rainy  season,  when  the  new  grasses  spring  up  with 
their  vivid  colour,  these  withered-grass  insects  seem 
all  to  disappear.  Their  colour  now  would  be  no 
protection  to  them,  and  their  places  are  taken  by 
others  coloured  as  green  as  the  new  grass.  Whether 
these  are  new  insects  or  only  the  same  in  spring 
toilets  I  do  not  know,  but  I  should  think  they  are 
a  different  population  altogether,  the  cycle  of  the 
former  generation  being,  probably,  complete  with 
the  end  of  summer. 

Besides  the  insects  which  imitate  grass,  another 
large  class  imitate  twigs,  sticks,  and  the  smaller 
branches  of  shrubs.  The  commonest  of  these  is  a 
walking  twig,  three  or  four  inches  long,  covered  with 
bark  apparently,  and  spotted  all  over  with  mould 
like  the  genuine  branch.  The  imitation  of  bark 
here  is  one  of  the  most  perfect  delusions  in  nature  ; 
the  delicate  striation  and  the  mould  spots  are  repro- 
duced exactly,  while  the  segmentation  of  the  body 
represents  node -intervals  with  wonderful  accuracy. 
On  finding  one  of  these  insects  I  have  often  cut  a 
small  branch  from  an  adjoining  tree  and  laid  the 
two  side  by  side  for  comparison  ;  and  when  both 
are  partly  concealed  by  the  hands  so  as  to  show 
only  the  part  of  the  insect's  body  which  is  free  from 
limbs,  it  is  impossible  to  tell  the  one  from  the  other. 


174 


MIMICRY 


The  very  joints  of  the  legs  in  these  forms  are 
knobbed  to  represent  nodes,  and  the  characteristic 
attitudes  of  the  insect  are  all  such  as  to  sustain  the 
deception. 

A  still  more  elaborate  set  of  forms  are  those 
which  represent  leaves.  These  belong  mostly  to  the 
Mantis  and  Locust  tribes,  and  they  are  found  in  all 
forms,  sizes,  and  colours,  mimicking  foliage  at  every 
stage  of  growth,  maturity,  and  decay.  Some  have 
the  leaf  stamped  on  their  broadened  wing-cases  in 
vivid  green,  with  veins  and  midrib  complete,  and 
with  curious  expansions  over  the  thorax  and  along 
all  the  limbs  to  imitate  smaller  leaves.  I  have 
again  and  again  matched  these  forms  in  the  forest, 
not  only  with  the  living  leaf,  but  with  crumpled, 
discoloured,  and  shrivelled  specimens,  and  indeed 
the  imitations  of  the  crumpled  autumn-leaf  are  even 
more  numerous  and  impressive  than  those  of  the 
living  form.  Lichens,  mosses,  and  fungi  are  also 
constantly  taken  as  models  by  insects,  and  there  is 
probably  nothing  in  the  vegetal  kingdom,  no  knot, 
wart,  nut,  mould,  scale,  bract,  thorn,  or  bark,  which 
has  not  its  living  counterpart  in  some  animal  form. 
Most  of  the  moths,  beetles,  weevils,  and  especially 
the  larval  forms,  are  more  or  less  protected  mime- 
tically  ;  and  in  fact  almost  the  entire  population  of 


THE  WAYS  OF  AFRICAN  INSECTS  175 


the  tropics  is  guilty  of  personation  in  ways  known 
or  unknown.  The  lichen -mimicking  insects  even 
go  the  length  of  imitating  holes,  by  means  of 
mirror-like  pools  of  black  irregularly  disposed  on 


the  back,  or  interrupting  the  otherwise  dangerous 
symmetry  of  the  fringed  sides.  The  philosophy  of 
these  coal-black  markings  greatly  puzzled  me  for  a 
time.  The  first  I  saw  was  on  a  specimen  of  the 
singular  and  rare  Harpax  ocellaria,  which  had  been 


176  MIMICRY 

thrown  on  the  camp  fire  chnging  to  a  Hchen-covered 
log,  and  so  well  carried  out  was  the  illusion  that 
even  the  natives  were  deceived  till  the  culprit  betrayed 
its  quality  by  erecting  its  gauzy  wings. 

But  it  would  be  tedious  to  recount  further  the 
divisive  ways  of  these  arch -deceivers,  and  I  shall 
only  refer  to  another  mimetic  form,  which  for  cool 
Pharisaism  takes  the  palm  from  every  creeping  or 
flying  thing.  T  first  saw  this  mentettr  a  triple  etage 
on  the  Tanganyika  plateau.  I  had  lain  for  a  whole 
week  without  stirring  from  one  spot — a  boulder  in 
the  dried -up  bed  of  a  stream,  for  this  is  the  only 
-way  to  find  out  what  really  goes  on  in  nature.  A 
canopy  of  leaves  arched  overhead,  the  home  of  many 
birds,  and  the  granite  boulders  of  the  dry  stream- 
bed,  and  all  along  the  banks,  were  marked  with  their 
white  droppings.  One  day  I  was  startled  to  see  one 
of  these  droppings  move.  It  was  a  mere  white 
splash  upon  the  stone,  and  when  I  approached  I  saw 
I  must  be  mistaken  ;  the  thing  was  impossible  ;  and 
now  it  was  perfectly  motionless.  But  I  certainly 
saw  it  move,  so  I  bent  down  and  touched  it.  It  was 
an  animal.  Of  course  it  was  as  dead  as  a  stone  the 
moment  I  touched  it,  but  one  soon  knows  these 
impostures,  and  I  gave  it  a  minute  or  two  to  become 
alive — hastily  sketching   it   meantime   in   case  it 


THE  WAYS  OF  AFRICAN  INSECTS 


177 


should  vanish  through  the  stone,  for  in  that  land  of 
wonders  one  really  never  knows  what  will  happen 
next  Here  was  a  bird-dropping  suddenly  become 
alive  and  moving  over  a  rock  ;  and  now  it  was  a 
bird-dropping  again  ;  and  yet,  like  Galileo,  I  protest 
that  it  moved.  It  would  not  come  to,  and  I  almost 
feared  I  might  be  mistaken  after  all,  so  I  turned  it 
over  on  its  other  side.  Now  should  any  sceptic 
persist  that  this  was  a  bird-dropping  I  leave  him  to 
account  for  a  bird-dropping  with  six  legs,  a  head, 
and  a  segmented  body.  Righting  the  creature, 
which  showed  no  sign  of  life  through  all  this  ordeal, 
I  withdrew  a  few  paces  and  watched  developments. 
It  lay  motionless  on  the  stone,  no  legs,  no  head,  no 
feelers,  nothing  to  be  seen  but  a  flat  patch  of  white 
— ^just  such  a  patch  as  you  could  make  on  the  stone 
in  a  second  with  a  piece  of  chalk.  Presently  it 
stirred,  and  the  spot  slowly  sidled  across  the  boulder 
until  I  caught  the  impostor  and  imprisoned  him  for 
my  cabinet.  I  saw  in  all  about  a  dozen  of  these 
insects  after  this.  They  are  about  half  the  size  of  a 
fourpenny-piece,  slightly  more  oval  than  round,  and 
as  white  as  a  snowflake.  This  whiteness  is  due  to 
a  number  of  little  tufts  of  delicate  down  growing  out 
from  minute  protuberances  all  over  the  back.  It  is 
a  fringe  of  similar  tufts  round  the  side  that  gives  the 

N 


178 


MIMICRY 


irregular  margin  so  suggestive  of  a  splash  ;  and  the 
under  surface  of  the  body  has  no  protection  at  all. 
The  limbs  are  mere  threads,  and  the  motion  of  the 
insect  is  slow  and  monotonous,  with  frequent  pauses 
to  impress  surrounding  nature  with  its  moribund  con- 
dition. Now  unless  this  insect  with  this  colour  and 
habit  were  protectively  coloured  it  simply  would  not 
have  a  chance  to  exist.  It  lies  fearlessly  exposed  on 
the  bare  stones  during  the  brightest  hours  of  the 
tropical  day,  a  time  when  almost  every  other  animal 
is  skulking  out  of  sight  Lying  upon  all  the  stones 
round  about  are  the  genuine  droppings  of  birds  ;  and 
when  one  sees  the  two  together  it  is  difficult  to  say 
whether  one  is  most  struck  with  the  originality  of 
the  idea,  or  the  extraordinary  audacity  with  which 
the  role  is  carried  out.-^ 

It  will  be  apparent  from  these  brief  notes  that 
mimicry  is  not  merely  an  occasional  or  exceptional 
phenomenon,  but  an  integral  part  of  the  economy  of 
nature.     It  is  not  a  chance  relation  between  a  few 


1  It  is  a  considerable  responsibility  to  be  the  sole  witness 
to  this  comedy — though  I  saw  it  repeated  a  dozen  times  subse- 
quently— but  fortunately  for  my  veracity,  I  have  since  learned 
from  Mr.  Kirby  of  the  British  Museum  that  there  is  an  English 
beetle,  the  Cio7ms  Blatfaria,  the  larval  form  of  which  "  oper- 
ates "  in  a  preciseh'  similar  way. 


THE  WA  YS  OF  AFRICAN  INSECTS 


179 


objects,  but  a  system  so  widely  authorised  that  prob- 
ably the  whole  animal  kingdom  is  more  or  less 
involved  in  it ;  a  system,  moreover,  which,  in  the 
hands  of  natural  selection,  must  ever  increase  in 
intricacy  and  beauty.  It  may  also  be  taken  for 
granted  that  a  scheme  so  widespread  and  so  success- 
ful is  based  upon  some  sound  utilitarian  principle. 
That  principle,  I  should  say,  was  probably  its  economy. 
Nature  does  everything  as  simply  as  possible,  and 
with  the  least  expenditure  of  material.  Now  con- 
sider the  enormous  saving  of  muscle  and  nerve,  of 
instinct  and  energy,  secured  by  making  an  animal's 
lease  of  life  to  depend  on  passivity  rather  than 
activity.  Instead  of  having  to  run  away,  the  creature 
has  simply  to  keep  still  ;  instead  of  having  to  fight, 
it  has  but  to  hide.  No  armour  is  needed,  no  power- 
ful muscle,  no  expanse  of  wing.  A  few  daubs  of 
colour,  a  little  modelling  of  thorax  and  abdomen, 
a  deft  turn  of  antennae  and  limb,  and  the  thing  is 
done. 

At  the  first  revelation  of  all  these  smart  hypocrisies 
one  is  inclined  to  brand  the  whole  system  as  cowardly 
and  false.  And,  however  much  the  creatures  impress 
you  by  their  cleverness,  you  never  quite  get  over  the 
feeling  that  there  is  something  underhand  about  it  ; 
something  questionable  and  morally  unsound.  The 


MIMICRY 


evolutionist,  also,  is  apt  to  charge  mimetic  species  in 
general  with  neglecting  the  harmonious  development 
of  their  physical  framework,  and  by  a  cheap  and 
ignoble  subterfuge  evading  the  appointed  struggle 
for  life.  But  is  it  so  ?  Are  the  aesthetic  elements 
in  nature  so  far  below  the  mechanical  ?  Are  colour 
and  form,  quietness  and  rest,  so  much  less  important 
than  the  specialisation  of  single  function  or  excel- 
lence in  the  arts  of  war  ?  Is  it  nothing  that,  while 
in  some  animals  the  disguises  tend  to  become  more 
and  more  perfect,  the  faculties  for  penetrating  them, 
in  other  animals,  must  continually  increase  in  subtlety 
and  power  ?  And,  after  all,  if  the  least  must  be  said, 
is  it  not  better  to  be  a  live  dog  than  a  dead  lion  ? 


VIII 

A  GEOLOGICAL  SKETCH 


VIII 


A  GEOLOGICAL  SKETCH 
ROI\I  the  work  of  the  various  explo!'ers  who 


have  penetrated  Africa,  it  is  now  certain  that 
the  interior  of  that  Continent  is  occupied  by  a  vast 
plateau  from  4000  to  5000  feet  above  the  level  of 
the  sea.  In  five  separate  regions — in  the  North- 
East,  in  Abyssinia,  in  the  Masai  country,  on  the 
Tanganyika  plateau,  and  in  the  district  inland  from 
Benguela — this  plateau  attains  a  height  of  consider- 
ably over  5000  feet ;  while  towards  the  coasts, 
throughout  their  entire  length,  both  east  and  west, 
it  falls  with  great  uniformity  to  a  lower  plateau, 
with  an  elevation  of  from  1000  to  2000  feet.  This 
lower  plateau  is  succeeded,  also  with  much  uniformity 
along  both  coast  lines,  by  littoral  and  deltoid  plains, 
with  an  average  breadth  from  the  sea  of  about  i  5  o 
miles. 

The  section  which  I  am  about  to  describe, 
entering   Africa   at  the   Zambesi   and  penetrating 


A  GEOLOGICAL  SKETCH 


inwards  to  the  Tanganyika  plateau,  traverses  each 
of  these  regions  in  turn — the  coast-belt,  the  lower 
fringing  table-land,  the  great  general  plateau  of  the 
country,  and  the  third  or  highest  elevation  of  the 
Tanganyika  table-land.  To  deal  thoroughly  with  so 
vast  a  region  in  the  course  of  a  single  exploration 
is  out  of  the  question  ;  and  I  only  indicate  here  a 
few  of  the  rough  results  of  what  was  no  more  than  a 
brief  and  hasty  reconnaissance. 

The  first  and  only  geological  feature  to  break  the 
monotony  of  mangrove-swamp  and  low  grass  plain 
of  the  coast-belt  is  the  debris  of  an  ancient  coral- 
reef,  studded  with  sponges  and  other  organisms. 
This  reef  is  exposed  on  the  Qua-qua  River,  a  little 
above  Mogurrumba,  and  about  fifty  miles  from  the 
sea.  It  is  of  small  extent,  at  no  great  height  above 
the  present  sea -level,  and,  taken  alone,  can  only 
argue  for  a  very  inconsiderable  elevation  of  the  coast 
region.  Some  twenty  miles  farther  inland,  and  still 
only  a  few  yards  above  sea-level,  an  inconspicuous 
elevation  appears,  consisting  of  sedimentary  rocks. 
This  belt  is  traceable  for  some  distance,  both  north 
and  south,  and  a  poor  section  may  be  found  in  the 
Zambesi  River,  a  few  miles  above  the  grave  of  Mrs. 
Livingstone  at  Shupanga.  The  rocks  in  question, 
which  are  only  visible  when  the  Zambesi  is  very  low, 


A  GEOLOGICAL  SI^ETCH 


185 


consist  of  a  few  thin  beds  of  red  and  yellow  sand- 
stones, with  intercalated  marly  sandstones  and  fine 
conglomerates.  Sedimentary  rocks,  in  a  somewhat 
similar  relation,  are  found  at  least  as  far  north  as 
Mombassa,  above  Zanzibar,  and  as  far  south  as  the 
Cape  ;  and  it  seems  probable  that  the  whole  of  the 
plateau  of  the  interior  is  fringed  by  this  narrow  belt. 
No  organic  remains  have  been  found  in  this  series 
north  of  Natal,  but  the  fossils  of  the  Cape  beds  may 
shed  some  light  on  its  horizon.  Associated  probably 
with  these  rocks  are  the  great  beds  of  coal  which  are 
known  to  exist  some  distance  up  the  river  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Tette. 

A  short  distance  above  the  junction  of  the  River 
Shire  with  the  Zambesi  the  first  hills  of  the  plateau 
begin  almost  abruptly.  They  occur  in  irregular 
isolated  masses,  mostly  of  the  saddle -back  order, 
and  varying  in  height  from  100  or  200  to  2000 
feet.  Those  I  examined  consisted  entirely  of  a  very 
white  quartzite — the  only  quartzite,  I  may  say,  I 
ever  saw  in  East  Central  Africa.  At  the  foot  of  the 
most  prominent  of  those  hills — that  of  Morumballa — 
a  hot -spring  bubbles  up,  which  Livingstone  has 
already  described  in  his  "  Zambesi."  Hot-springs 
are  not  uncommon  in  other  parts  of  the  Continent, 
and  several  are  to  be  found  on  the  shores  of  Lake 


i86 


A  GEOLOGICAL  SKETCH 


Nyassa.  These  are  all  of  the  simplest  type,  and 
although  the  temperature  is  high  they  leave  no 
deposit  anywhere  to  indicate  their  chemical  char- 
acter. 

Two  or  three  days'  journey  north  and  west  of 
Morumballa,  among  the  distant  hills  which  border 
the  valley  of  the  Shire,  Livingstone  marks  a  spot  in 
his  sketch-map  where  coal  is  to  be  found.  After 
examining  the  neighbourhood  with  some  care,  and 
cross-examining  the  native  tribes,  I  conclude  that 
Livingstone  must,  in  this  instance,  have  been  either 
mistaken  or  misinformed.  A  black  rock  certainly 
occurs  at  the  locality  named,  but  after  securing 
specimens  of  this  as  well  as  of  all  the  dark-coloured 
rocks  in  the  vicinity,  I  found  them  to  be,  without 
exception,  members  of  the  igneous  class.  One  very 
dark  diorite  was  probably  the  rock  which,  on  a 
distant  view,  had  been  mistaken  for  coal,  for  none  of 
the  natives  along  the  whole  length  of  the  lower 
Shire  had  ever  heard  of  a  black  rock  which  burned." 
Coal,  however,  as  already  mentioned,  does  certainly 
occur  farther  inland  on  the  Zambesi  ;  while,  farther 
south,  the  Natal  and  Transvaal  coalfields  are  now 
well  known. 

While  speaking  of  coal  I  may  best  refer  here  to 
a  small  coal-bed  associated  with  an  apparently  differ- 


A  GEOLOGICAL  SKETCH 


187 


ent  series  of  rocks,  and  of  special  interest  from  its 
occurrence  in  the  far  interior  of  the  country.  On 
the  western  shore  of  Lake  Nyassa,  about  10°  south 
latitude,  coal  was  reported  a  few  years  ago  by  a 
solitary  explorer,  who  penetrated  that  region  pro- 
specting for  gold  in  the  wake  of  Livingstone.  The 
importance  of  such  a  discovery — a  coal-seam  on  the 
borders  of  one  of  the  great  inland  seas  of  Africa — 
cannot  be  over-estimated  ;  and  the  late  Mr.  James 
Stewart,  C.E.,  who  has  done  such  important  work  for 
the  geography  of  Africa,  made  a  special  examination 
of  the  spot.  From  his  report  to  the  Royal  Geogra- 
phical Society,  I  extract  the  following  reference  : — 

"On  the  29th  we  marched  northwards  along  the 
coast,  reaching,  after  three  miles,  the  stream  in  which 
is  the  coal  discovered  by  Mr.  Rhodes.  The  coal  lies 
in  a  clay  bank,  tilted  up  at  an  angle  of  45°,  dip  west. 
It  is  laid  bare  over  only  some  30  feet,  and  is  about 
7  feet  thick.  It  hardly  looks  as  if  it  were  in  its 
original  bed.  The  coal  is  broken  and  thrown  about 
as  if  it  had  been  brought  down  by  a  landslip,  and 
traces  of  clay  are  found  in  the  interstices.  Yet  the 
bed  is  compact,  and  full  of  good  coal.  I  traced  it 
along  the  hillside  for  some  200  yards,  and  found  it 
cropping  out  on  the  surface  here  and  there.  It  is 
500  feet  above  the  lake-level,  and  about  a  mile  and 


iS8 


A  GEOLOGICAL  SKETCH 


a  half  from  the  shore.  I  lit  a  good  fire  with  it,  which 
burned  up  strongly.  The  coal  softened  and  threw 
out  gas  bubbles,  but  gave  no  gas-jets.  It  caked 
slightly,  but  not  so  as  to  impede  its  burning." — Pro- 
ceedings^ vol.  iii.  No.  5,  p.  264. 

I  examined  this  section  pretty  carefully,  and  fear 
I  must  differ  slightly  from  Mr.  Stewart  in  his  geo- 
logical and  economical  view  of  the  formation.  The 
7-foot  seam  described  by  Stewart  is  certainly  a 
deception,  the  seam  being  really  composed  of  a  series 
of  thin  beds  of  alternately  carbonaceous  and  argilla- 
ceous matter,  few  of  the  layers  of  coal  being  more 
than  an  inch  in  thickness.  With  some  of  the  most 
carefully  selected  specimens  I  lit  a  fire,  but  with 
disappointing  results.  Combustion  was  slow,  and 
without  flame.  Although  there  were  what  can  only 
be  called  filvis  of  really  good  coal  here  and  there, 
the  mineral,  on  the  whole,  seemed  of  inferior 
quality,  and  useless  as  a  steam-coal.  From  the 
general  indications  of  the  locality  I  should  judge 
that  the  coal  existed  only  in  limited  quantity,  while 
the  position  of  the  bed  at  the  top  of  a  rocky  gorge 
renders  the  deposit  all  but  inaccessible.  On  the 
whole,  therefore,  the  Lake  Nyassa  coal,  so  far  as 
opened  up  at  present,  can  scarcely  be  regarded  as 
having  any  great  economical  importance,  although 


A  GEOLOGICAL  SKETCH 


the  geological  interest  of  such  a  mineral  in  this 
region  is  considerable.  Sections  of  the  coal  have 
already  been  prepared  for  the  microscope,  and  Dr. 
Carruthers  of  the  British  Museum  has  identified  the 
macrospores  of  Lycopodaceous  plants,  which  are 
identical  with  similar  organisms  found  in  the  coal- 
fields of  England. 

The  Geology  of  the  great  African  plateaux, 
so  far  as  my  section  from  the  Lower  Shire  to  the 
Tanganyika  plateau  is  any  indication  of  their  general 
structure,  is  of  such  simplicity  that  it  may  almost  be 
dismissed  in  a  sentence.  The  whole  country  from 
the  Shire  river,  a  hundred  miles  above  its  junction 
with  the  Zambesi,  embracing  the  lower  and  higher 
central  plateaux,  the  whole  Shire  Highlands  from 
the  river  to  the  westward  shores  of  Lake  Shirwa, 
the  three  hundred  miles  of  rocky  coast  fringing  the 
western  shore  of  Lake  Nyassa,  the  plateau  between 
Nyassa  and  Tanganyika  for  at  least  half  its  length 
— with  one  unimportant  interruption — consists  solely 
of  granite  and  gneiss.  The  character  and  texture  of 
this  rock  persist  with  remarkable  uniformity  through- 
out this  immense  region.  The  granite,  an  ordinary 
gray  granite,  composed  of  white  rarely  pink  orthoclase 
felspar,  the  mica  of  the  biotitic  or  magnesian  variety, 
rarely  muscovite,  and  neither  fine  nor  coarse  in 


A  GEOLOGICAL  SKETCH 


texture  ;  the  gneiss,  the  same  rock  foliated.  Of  the 
relation  of  these  gneissose  and  granitic  rocks  to  one 
another  I  was  unable  to  discover  any  law.  Some- 
times the  gneiss  would  persist  over  a  large  area, 
sometimes  the  granite  ;  while  frequently  the  two 
would  alternate  perplexingly  within  a  limited  area. 
Mr.  Joseph  Thomson's  section,  drawn  inland  from 
Zanzibar  and  joining  mine  at  the  northern  end  of 
Lake  Nyassa,  and  thence  onwards  by  a  more  easterly 
route  towards  Tanganyika,  reveals  a  somewhat  similar 
petrographical  structure  ;  and,  from  scattered  refer- 
ences in  the  journals  of  other  explorers,  it  is  plain 
that  this  gneisso-granitic  formation  occupies  a  very 
large  area  in  the  interior  of  the  African  Continent. 
Associated  minerals  with  these  rocks,  as  far  as  a 
very  general  survey  indicated,  were  all  but  wholly 
wanting.  At  Zomba,  on  the  Shire  Highlands,  a  little 
tourmaline  occurs,  but  of  the  precious  metals  I  could 
find  no  trace.  Veins  of  any  kind  are  also  rare  ;  and 
even  pegmatite  I  encountered  in  only  one  instance. 
Intrusive  dykes  throughout  the  whole  area  were  like- 
wise absent  except  in  a  single  district.  This  district 
lies  towards  the  southern  border  of  the  Shire  High- 
lands, immediately  where  the  plateau  rises  from  the 
river,  and  there  the  dykes  occur  pretty  numerously. 
They  are  seldom  more  than  a  few  feet  in  breadth, 


A  GEOLOGICAL  SKETCH 


191 


and  consist  of  ordinary  dolerite  or  basalt.  The  black 
rock  on  the  Lower  Shire,  already  mentioned  in  con- 
nection with  Livingstone's  supposed  discovery  of  coal, 
may  possibly  be  one  of  these  dykes  ;  but  that  there 
is  any  considerable  development  of  igneous  rocks  in 
this  immediate  locality  I  should  doubt.  Farther  up 
the  Zambesi,  however,  coulees  of  basalt  are  met 
with  at  more  than  one  place,  conspicuously  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  Victoria  Falls.  The  only 
distinct  trace  of  volcanic  action  throughout  my  route 
appeared  towards  the  extreme  northern  end  of  Lake 
Nyassa.  One  is  warned  beforehand  by  occasional 
specimens  of  pumice  lying  about  the  lake  shore  as 
one  travels  north  ;  but  it  is  not  till  the  extreme  end 
of  the  lake  is  reached  that  the  source  is  discovered  in 
the  series  of  low  volcanic  cones  which  Thomson  has 
already  described  in  this  locality.  The  development 
is  apparently  local,  and  the  origin  of  the  cones 
probably  comparatively  recent. 

Apart  from  this  local  development  of  igneous 
rocks  at  the  north  end  of  Lake  Nyassa,  the  only- 
other  break  in  the  granitic  series  throughout  the  area 
traversed  by  my  line  of  march  occurs  near  the  native 
village  of  Karonga,  on  Lake  Nyassa.  About  a  dozen 
miles  from  the  north-western  lake  shore  on  the  route 
to  Tanganyika,  after  following  the   Rukuru  river 


192 


A  GEOLOGICAL  SKETCH 


through  a  defile  of  granite  rocks,  I  came,  to  my 
great  surprise,  upon  a  well-marked  series  of  stratified 
beds.  At  a  bend  in  the  river  a  fine  section  is 
exposed.  They  lie  thrown  against  the  granitic  rocks, 
which  here  show  signs  of  disturbance,  and  consist  of 
thin  beds  of  very  fine  light-gray  sandstone,  and  blue 
and  gray  shales,  with  an  occasional  band  of  gray 
limestone.  By  camping  at  the  spot  for  some  days, 
and  working  patiently,  I  was  rewarded  with  the  dis- 
covery of  fossils.  This  is,  of  course,  the  main  interest 
of  these  beds, — for  these  are,  I  believe,  the  only 
fossils  that  have  ever  been  found  in  Central  Africa. 
The  shale,  naturally,  yielded  the  most  productive 
results,  one  layer  especially  being  one  mass  of  small 
Lamellibranchiata.  Though  so  numerous,  these  fossils 
are  confined  to  a  single  species  of  the  Tellinidae^  a 
family  abundantly  represented  in  tropical  seas  at  the 
present  time,  and  dating  back  as  far  as  the  Oolite. 
Vegetable  remains  are  feebly  represented  by  a  few 
reeds  and  grasses.  Fish -scales  abound  ;  but  I  was 
only  able,  and  that  after  much  labour,  to  unearth 
two  or  three  imperfect  specimens  of  the  fishes  them- 
selves. These  have  been  put  into  the  accomplished 
hands  of  Dr.  Traquair  of  Edinburgh,  who  has  been 
kind  enough  to  furnish  the  following  account  of 
them  : — 


A  GEOLOGICAL  SKETCH 


193 


Edinburgh,  2^(1  April  1888. 

Dear  Professor  Drummond  —  I  have  carefully 
examined  the  six  specimens  of  fossil  fish -remains  from 
Central  Africa,  which  you  submitted  to  me,  and  though  I 
certainly  would  have  wished  them  to  have  been  less  frag- 
mentary, I  shall  do  my  best  to  give  an  opinion  upon  them. 

No.  I,  the  largest,  is  the  hinder  portion  of  a  fish  of 
moderate  size,  showing  not  only  scales,  but  also  the  remains 
of  the  dorsal,  anal,  and  caudal  fins.  The  caudal  is  strongly 
heterocercal,  and  was  probably  deeply  bifurcated,  but  the 
rays  of  the  lower  lobe  are  very  badly  preserved  :  only  the 
posterior  parts  of  the  dorsal  and  anal  are  seen,  nearly 
opposite  each  other,  and  composed  of  fine,  closely  placed, 
and  closely  articulated  rays.  The  scales,  displaced  and 
jumbled  up,  are  osseous,  thick,  and  rhomboidal,  with  a 
strong  blunt  carina  on  the  attached  surface,  while  the 
exposed  part  of  the  external  surface  is  covered  with  ganoine, 
and  ornamented  with  rather  sparsely  scattered  pits  and 
punctures. 

Belonging  to  the  Order  Ganoidei,  this  fish  is  with  equal 
certainty  referable  to  the  family  Palaeoniscidae,  but  its  genus 
is  more  a  matter  of  doubt  owing  to  the  fragmentary  nature 
of  the  specimen.  Judging  from  the  form  and  thickness 
of  the  scales,  I  should  be  inclined  to  refer  it  to  Acrolepis, 
were  it  not  that  the  dorsal  and  anal  fins  seem  so  close  to 
the  tail,  and  so  nearly  opposite  each  other ;  here,  however, 
it  may  be  remarked  that  the  disturbed  state  of  the  scales 
affords  room  for  the  possibility  that  the  original  relations 
of  the  parts  may  not  be  perfectly  preserved.  I  have, 
however,  no  doubt  that,  as  a  species,  it  is  new;  and  as 
you  have  been  the  first  to  bring  fossil  fishes  from  those 
regions  of  Central  Africa,  you  will  perhaps  allow  me  to 
name  it  Acrolepis  (?)  Drwnmondi. 

O 


194 


A  GEOLOGICAL  SI^ETCLI 


No.  2  is  a  piece  of  cream-coloured  limestone,  with 
numerous  minute,  scattered,  rhombic,  striated,  ganoid 
scales,  which  I  cannot  venture  to  name,  though  I  believe 
them  to  be  palaeoniscid.  Associated  with  these  is  a  small 
portion  of  the  margin  of  a  jaw,  with  numerous  minute 
sharp  conical  teeth.  But  also  lying  among  these  minuter 
relics  is  a  scale  of  a  much  larger  size,  and  clearly  belonging 
to  another  fish.  It  measures  \  inch  in  height  by  the  same 
in  breadth ;  its  shape  is  rhomboidal,  having  an  extensive 
anterior  covered  area,  and  a  strong  articular  spine  project- 
ing from  the  upper  margin.  The  free  surface  is  brilliantly 
ganoid,  and  marked  with  furrows  separating  feeble  ridges, 
which  pass  rather  obliquely  downwards  and  backwards 
across  the  scale,  and  terminate  in  eight  sharp  denticulations 
of  the  hinder  margin.  A  little  way  off  is  the  impression 
of  the  attached  surface  of  a  similar  scale,  and  there  are 
also  two  interspinous  bones,  probably  belonging  to  the 
same  fish. 

This  is  probably  also  a  palaeoniscid  scale,  resembling 
in  shape  those  of  Acrolepts,  but  it  is  rather  thinner  than 
is  usually  the  case  in  this  genus.  It  has  also  considerable 
resemblance  to  some  of  those  scales  from  the  European 
Trias,  named  by  Agassiz  Gyrolepis.  Though  it  may  be 
rather  venturesome  to  name  a  species  from  such  slender 
material,  nevertheless  we  may,  provisionally  at  least,  re- 
cognise the  scale  as  Acrolepis  (?)  Africanus. 

Nos.  3  and  4  are  small  pieces  of  the  same  Hmestone, 
covered  with  the  minute  striated  palseoniscid  scales  referred 
to  above. 

No.  5  is  a  piece  of  gray  micaceous  shale,  with  scales 
of  yet  a  fourth  species  of  palaeoniscid  fish.  One  con- 
spicuous scale  unfortunately,  like  all  the  rest,  seen  only 
from  the  attached  surface,  is  \  inch  in  height  by  nearly  \ 


A  GEOLOGICAL  SKETCH 


195 


in  breadth ;  it  is  tolerably  rectangular  in  shape,  having  a 
well-developed  articular  spine  and  fossette.  Part  of  the 
scale  is  broken  away  at  the  anterior  margin,  the  impression 
brought  into  view  showing  that  the  covered  area  is  narrow, 
and  indicating  that  the  free  surface  is  striated  with  rather 
sharp  ridges  passing  obliquely  across  the  scale.  The 
posterior  margin  is  finely  denticulated. 

Though  this  scale  is  in  my  opinion  specifically,  and 
possibly  generically,  distinct  from  those  previously  named, 
the  outer  surface  not  being  properly  displayed  renders  it 
impossible  to  give  a  sufficient  diagnosis. 

No.  6  is  a  piece  of  the  same  shale,  having  the  clavicle 
of  a  small  palaeoniscid  fish,  which  it  is,  however,  impossible 
to  name. — I  am,  yours  faithfully, 

R.  H.  Traquair. 

These  fossiliferous  beds  seem  to  occupy  a  com- 
paratively limited  area,  and  have  a  very  high  dip  in 
a  south-easterly  direction.  At  the  spot  where  my 
observations  were  taken  they  did  not  extend  over 
more  than  half  a  mile  of  country,  but  it  is  possible 
that  the  formation  may  persist  for  a  long  distance  in 
other  directions.  Indeed,  I  traced  it  for  some  miles 
in  the  direction  in  which,  some  fifty  or  sixty  miles 
off,  lay  the  coal  already  described,  and  to  which  it 
may  possibly  be  related. 

With  one  or  two  general  remarks  upon  surface 
geology  and  physical  geography  I  bring  this  note  to 
a  close.     First,  regarding  the  Lakes  Nyassa  and 


196 


A  GEOLOGICAL  SIvETCH 


Shirwa, — there  is  distinct  evidence,  and  especially  in 
the  case  of  the  latter,  that  they  have  formerly  occu- 
pied a  considerably  larger  area  than  at  present. 
Shirwa  is  an  extremely  shallow  lake  ;  though  the 
eastern  and  southern  shores  are  mountainous  it  is 
suggestive  rather  of  an  immense  bog  than  of  a  deep 
inland  sea.  For  many  miles  before  reaching  the 
shore  there  are  signs  that  one  is  traversing  the  site 
of  a  former  and  larger  Shirwa,  which  may  possibly 
at  one  time  have  been  actually  connected  with  the 
lower  extremity  of  Lake  Nyassa.  To  substantiate 
this  conclusion,  however,  will  require  more  detailed 
examination  of  the  Shire  Highlands  than  I  was  able 
to  give.  The  peculiarity  of  Shirwa  is  that  the  water 
is  brackish  to  the  taste,  while  that  of  Nyassa  and 
of  the  other  Central  African  lakes,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Lake  Leopold,  is  fresh.  The  shallowness 
of  Shirwa,  and  the  precariousness  of  its  outlet  through 
Lake  Cheuta  to  the  Lujenda,  amply  account  for  this 
difference  ;  for  the  narrow  waters  of  Nyassa  and 
Tanganyika  are  thoroughly  drained  and  profoundly 
deep. 

That  Lake  Nyassa  is  also  slowly  drying  up  is 
evident  from  the  most  superficial  examination  of  its 
southern  end.  There  it  has  already  left  behind  a 
smaller  lake — Lake  Pomalombe — a  considerable  ex- 


A  GEOLOGICAL  SKETCH 


197 


panse  of  water,  through  which  the  Shire  passes  a  few 
miles  after  emerging  from  Lake  Nyassa,  but  already  so 
shallow  that  nowhere  in  the  dry  season  does  the  depth 
exceed  three  fathoms.  If  the  silting  up  of  this  lake 
continues  for  a  few  years  it  will  render  this  sheet  of 
water,  which  commands  the  entrance  to  Lake  Nyassa, 
totally  unnavigable,  and  thus  close  the  magnificent 
water -highway  at  present  open,  with  a  portage  of 
seventy  miles,  from  the  top  of  Lake  Nyassa  to  the 
Indian  Ocean  at  the  mouth  of  the  Zambesi. 

Regarding  the  interesting  question  of  the  origin 
of  Lake  Nyassa  and  its  great  sister -lakes  in  the 
heart  of  Africa — the  Victoria  and  Albert  Nyanza 
and  Tanganyika — I  do  not  presume  to  speak.  No 
follower  of  Ramsay  in  his  theory  of  the  glacial 
origin  of  lakes  could  desire  a  more  perfect  example 
of  a  rock-basin  than  that  of  Lake  Nyassa.  It  is  a 
gigantic  trough  of  granite  and  gneiss,  three  hundred 
miles  in  length,  nowhere  over  fifty  miles  in  breadth, 
and  sixteen  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea, 
the  mountains  rising  all  around  it,  and  sometimes 
almost  sheer  above  it,  to  a  farther  height  of  one, 
two,  and  three  thousand  feet.  The  high  Tangan- 
yika plateau  borders  it  on  the  northern  shore,  and 
the  greatest  depth  [is  precisely  where  the  glacial 
theory  would  demand,  namely,  towards  the  upper 


A  GEOLOGICAL  SI^ETCH 


portion  of  the  lake.  On  the  other  hand,  the  physical 
geology  of  the  country  in  which  these  other  lakes 
are  situated,  as  well  as  several  features  connected 
with  Lake  Nyassa  itself,  lend  no  countenance  to 
such  a  view  ;  and  probably  the  suggestion  of  Mur- 
chison  and  other  geologists  is  correct,  that  all  these 
lakes,  colossal  though  they  still  are,  are  the  rem- 
nants of  a  much  vaster  expanse  of  water  which  once 
stretched  over  Central  Africa. 

The  only  other  point  to  which  I  need  allude  is 
the  subject  of  glaciation  itself  And  I  refer  to  this 
pointedly,  because  I  have  lately  encountered  allu- 
sions, and  in  quarters  entitling  them  to  respect,  to 
the  presence  of  glacial  phenomena  in  the  Central 
Lake  district  of  Africa.  I  confess  that  my  observa- 
tions have  failed  to  confirm  these  suggestions.  It 
has  been  my  lot  to  have  had  perhaps  exceptional 
opportunities  of  studying  the  phenomena  of  glacia- 
tion in  Europe  and  Northern  America,  and  I  have 
been  unable  to  detect  anywhere  in  the  interior  of 
Africa  a  solitary  indication  of  glacial  action.  In 
Kaffirland,  far  to  the  south,  there  are  features  which 
one  would  almost  unhesitatingly  refer  to  glaciation  ; 
but  in  East  Central  Africa  not  a  vestige  of  boulder- 
clay,  nor  moraine  matter,  nor  striae,  nor  glaciated 
surface,  nor  outline,  is  anywhere  traceable.  One 


A  GEOLOGICAL  SKETCH 


99 


would  be  curious  to  know  to  what  extent  the  flora 
and  fauna  of  the  inland  plateau  confirm  or  contradict 
this  negative  evidence  against  the  glaciation  of  this 
region. 

Finally,  the  thing  about  the  geology  of  Africa 
that  strikes  one  as  especially  significant  is,  that 
throughout  this  vast  area,  just  opening  up  to  science, 
there  is  nothing  new — no  unknown  force  at  work  ; 
no  rock  strange  to  the  petrographer  ;  no  pause  in 
denudation  ;  no  formation,  texture,  or  structure  to 
put  the  law  of  continuity  to  confusion.  Rapid 
radiation,  certainly,  replaces  the  effects  of  frost  in 
northern  lands — and  the  enormous  denudation  due 
to  this  cause  is  a  most  striking  feature  of  tropical 
geology.  The  labours  of  the  worm,  again,  in  trans- 
porting soil  in  temperate  climates  are  undertaken 
by  the  termite  ;  but  here,  as  elsewhere,  every  fresh 
investigation  tends  to  establish  more  and  more  the 
oneness  and  simplicity  of  Nature. 


IX 

POLITICAL  WARNING 


IX 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 
HEN   I  reached  the  coast  to  embark  for 


^  ^  England  after  my  wanderings  in  the  interior, 
the  Portuguese  authorities  at  Quilimane  presented 
me  with  various  official  documents,  which  I  was  told 
I  must  acknowledge  with  signatures  and  money 
before  being  permitted  to  leave  Africa.  Having 
already  had  to  pay  certain  moneys  to  Portugal  to 
get  into  this  country,  it  was  a  shock  to  find  that  I 
had  also  to  pay  to  get  out  ;  but,  as  no  tax  could  be 
considered  excessive  that  would  facilitate  one's  leaving 
even  the  least  of  the  Portuguese  East  African  colonies, 
I  cheerfully  counted  out  the  price  of  my  release. 
Before  completing  the  conveyance,  however,  my  eye 
fell  on  six  words  prominently  endorsed  on  one  of 
the  documents,  which  instantly  tightened  my  purse- 
strings.  The  words  were,  "  Tax  for  residing  in 
THE  Interior" — so  much.  Now  a  day  or  two 
spent  in  waiting  for  a  steamer  could  scarcely  be 


204 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 


construed  into  residence,  nor  could  a  strip  of  coast- 
line with  propriety  be  termed  the  interior,  so  I 
ventured  to  point  out  the  irrelevancy  to  the  Portu- 
guese official.  Waiving  the  merely  philological 
question  of  residence,  he  went  at  once  to  the  root 
of  the  matter  by  informing  me  that  the  Portuguese 
definition  of  the  word  Interior  differed  materially 
from  that  of  England.  The  Interior,  he  said,  com- 
prised the  whole  of  Africa  inland  from  the  coast- 
province  of  Mozambique,  and  included,  among  other 
and  larger  possessions,  the  trifling  territories  of  the 
Upper  Shire,  the  Shire  Highlands,  Lake  Shirwa,  and 
Lake  Nyassa.  These  last,  he  assured  me,  belonged 
to  Portugal,  and  it  became  me,  having  therein  shared 
the  protection  of  that  ancient  flag,  to  acknowledge  the 
obligation  to  the  extent  of  so  many  hundred  Reis. 

Though  not  unprepared  for  this  assumption,  the 
idea  of  enforcing  it  by  demanding  tribute  was  so 
great  a  novelty  that,  before  discharging  my  supposed 
liabilities,  I  humbly  asked  information  on  the  follow- 
ing points: — I.  Did  the  region  described  really 
belong  to  Portugal  ?  2.  When  and  where  was  this 
claim  recognised  by  England  directly  or  indirectly  ? 
3.  Where  in  the  Interior,  as  thus  defined,  was  the 
Portuguese  flag  to  be  found  ?  And  4.  What  pro- 
tection had  it  ever  given  to  me  or  to  any  other 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 


205 


European  ?  The  replies  to  these  queries  being 
evasive,  I  took  it  upon  myself  to  correct  the  history, 
the  geography,  and  the  politics  of  the  throng  of 
Government  officials  who  now  joined  the  sederunt 
by  the  following  statement  of  facts  : — i.  The  region 
described  did  not  belong  to  Portugal.  2.  Its 
sovereignty  had  never  been  in  any  way  acknow- 
ledged by  England.  3.  The  Portuguese  flag  was 
nowhere  to  be  found  there,  and  never  had  been 
there.  4.  Not  one  solitary  Portuguese  up  to  that  time 
had  ever  even  set  foot  in  the  country — except  one 
man  who  was  brought  in  for  a  few  weeks  under 
English  auspices  ;  so  that  no  protection  had  ever 
been  given,  or  could  possibly  be  given,  to  me  or  to 
any  one  else.  These  statements  were  received  in 
silence,  and  after  much  running  to  and  fro  among 
the  officials  the  representative  of  John  Bull,  instead 
of  being  dragged  to  prison,  and  his  rifle — his  only 
real  escort  through  Nyassa-land — poinded  to  pay  for 
his  imaginary  protection,  found  himself  bowed  off 
the  premises  with  a  discharge  in  full  of  his  debt  to 
Portugal,  and  the  unpaid  tax-paper  still  in  his  pocket. 

I  recall  this  incident  to  introduce  in  all  serious- 
ness the  question  interesting  so  many  at  the  present 
moment  as  to  the  title-deeds  of  Equatorial  Africa. 
Why  Africa  should  not  belong  to  the  Africans  I  have 


206 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 


never  quite  been  able  to  see,  but  since  this  Continent 
is  being  rapidly  partitioned  out  among  the  various 
European  States,  it  is  well,  even  in  the  African 
interest,  to  inquire  into  the  nature  and  validity  of 
these  claims.  The  two  political  maps  which  will  be 
found  at  the  end  of  this  volume  will  enable  those 
interested  to  see  the  present  situation  at  a  glance, 
and  I  shall  only  further  emphasise  one  or  two  points 
of  immediate  practical  importance. 

The  connection  of  Portugal  with  Africa  is  an 
old,  and — it  least  it  was  at  first — an  honourable  one. 
The  voyages  of  the  Portuguese  were  the  first  to 
enrich  geography  with  a  knowledge  of  the  African 
coasts,  and  so  early  as  1497  they  took  possession  of 
the  eastern  shore  by  founding  the  colony  of  Mozam- 
bique. This  rule,  however,  though  nominally  extend- 
ing from  Delagoa  Bay  to  as  far  north  as  Cape 
Delgado,  was  confined  to  two  or  three  isolated 
points,  and  nowhere,  except  on  the  Zambesi,  affected 
more  than  the  mere  fringe  of  land  bordering  the 
Indian  Ocean.  On  the  Zambesi  the.  Portuguese 
established  stations  at  Senna,  Tette,  and  Zumbo, 
which  were  used,  though  on  the  most  limited  scale, 
as  missionary  and  trading  centres  ;  but  these  are  at 
present  all  but  abandoned  and  in  the  last  stages  of 
decrepitude.     The  right  of  Portugal  to  the  lower 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 


207 


regions  of  the  Zambesi,  notwithstanding  its  entire 
failure  to  colonise  in  and  govern  the  country,  can 
never  be  disputed  by  any  European  Power,  though 
the  Landeens,  or  Zulus,  who  occupy  the  southern 
bank,  not  only  refuse  to  acknowledge  the  claim  but 
exact  an  annual  tribute  from  the  Portuguese  for  their 
occupation  of  the  district. 

No  one  has  ever  attempted  to  define  how  far 
inland  the  Portuguese  claim,  founded  on  coast- 
possession,  is  to  be  considered  good  ;  but  that  it 
cannot  include  the  regions  north  of  the  Zambesi — 
the  Shire  Highlands  and  Lake  Nyassa  —  is  self- 
evident.  These  regions  were  discovered  and  explored 
by  Livingstone.  They  have  been  occupied  since  his 
time  exclusively  by  British  subjects,  and  colonised 
exclusively  with  British  capital.  The  claim  of  Eng- 
land, therefore — though  nothing  but  a  moral  claim 
has  ever  been  made — is  founded  on  the  double  right 
of  discovery  and  occupation  ;  and  if  it  were  a  ques- 
tion of  treaty  with  the  natives,  it  might  possibly  be 
found  on  private  inquiry  that  a  precaution  so  obvious 
had  not  been  forgotten  by  those  most  nearly  inter- 
ested. On  the  other  hand,  no  treaties  exist  with 
Portugal  ;  there  is  not  a  single  Portuguese  in  the 
country,  and  until  the  other  day  no  Portuguese  had 
even  seen  it.     The  Portuguese  boundary-line  has 


208 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 


always  stopped  at  the  confluence  with  the  Shire  of 
the  river  Ruo,  and  the  political  barrier  erected  there 
by  Chipitula  and  the  river  Chiefs  has  been  main- 
tained so  rigidly  that  no  subject  of  Portugal  was  ever 
allowed  to  pass  it  from  the  south.  Instead,  there- 
fore, of  possessing  the  Shire  Highlands,  that  is  the 
region  of  all  others  from  which  the  Portuguese  have 
been  most  carefully  excluded. 

The  reason  for  this  enforced  exclusion  is  not  far 
to  seek.  At  first  the  Portuguese  had  too  much  to 
do  in  keeping  their  always  precarious  foothold  on 
the  banks  of  the  Zambesi  to  think  of  the  country 
that  lay  beyond  ;  and  when  their  eyes  were  at  last 
turned  towards  it  by  the  successes  of  the  English, 
the  detestation  in  which  they  were  by  this  time  held 
by  the  natives — the  inevitable  result  of  long  years  of 
tyranny  and  mismanagement — made  it  impossible 
for  them  to  extend  an  influence  which  was  known  to 
be  disastrous  to  every  native  right.  Had  the  Portu- 
guese done  well  by  the  piece  of  Africa  of  which 
they  already  assumed  the  stewardship,  no  one  now 
would  dispute  their  claim  to  as  much  of  the  country 
as  they  could  wisely  use.  But  when  even  the  natives 
have  had  to  rise  and  by  force  of  arms  prevent  their 
expansion,  it  is  impossible  that  they  should  be 
allowed  to  overflow  into  the  Highland  country — 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 


209 


much  less  to  claim  it — now  that  England,  by  pacific 
colonisation  and  missionary  work,  holds  the  key  to 
the  hearts  and  hands  of  its  peoples.  By  every  moral 
consideration  the  Portuguese  have  themselves  for- 
feited the  permission  to  trespass  farther  in  Equa- 
torial Africa.  They  have  done  nothing  for  the 
people  since  the  day  they  set  foot  in  it.  They  have 
never  discouraged,  but  rather  connived  at,  the  slave- 
trade  ;  Livingstone  himself  took  the  servant  of  the 
Governor  of  Tette  red-handed  at  the  head  of  a  large 
slave-gang.  They  have  been  at  perpetual  feud  with 
the  native  tribes.  They  have  taught  them  to  drink. 
Their  missions  have  failed.  Their  colonisation  is 
not  even  a  name.  With  such  a  record  in  the  past, 
no  pressure  surely  can  be  required  to  make  the 
Government  of  England  stand  firm  in  its  repudia- 
tion of  a  claim  which,  were  it  acknowledged,  would 
destroy  the  last  hope  for  East  Central  Africa. 

England's  stake  in  this  country  is  immeasurably 
greater  than  any  statistics  can  represent,  but  a 
rough  estimate  of  the  tangible  English  interest  will 
show  the  necessity  of  the  British  Government  doing 
its  utmost  at  least  to  conserve  what  is  already  there. 

The  Established  Church  of  Scotland  has  three 
ordained  missionaries  in  the  Shire  Highlands,  one 
medical   man,   a   male  and    a    female   teacher,  a 

P 


2IO 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 


carpenter,  a  gardener,  and  other  European  and 
many  native  agents.  The  Free  Church  of  Scotland 
on  Lake  Nyassa  has  four  ordained  missionaries — 
three  of  whom  are  doctors — several  teachers  and 
artizans,  and  many  native  catechists.  The  Univer- 
sities Mission  possesses  a  steamer  on  Lake  Nyassa, 
and  several  missionary  agents  ;  while  the  African 
Lakes  Company,  as  already  mentioned,  has  steamers 
both  on  the  Shire  and  Lake  Nyassa,  with  twelve 
trading  stations  established  at  intervals  throughout 
the  country,  and  manned  by  twenty-five  European 
agents.  All  these  various  agencies,  and  that  of  the 
brothers  Buchanan  at  Zomba,  are  well  equipped 
with  buildings,  implements,  roads,  plantations,  and 
gardens  ;  and  the  whole  represents  a  capital  expend- 
iture of  not  less  than  180,000.  The  well-known 
editor  of  Livingstone's  Journals,  the  Rev.  Horace 
Waller,  thus  sums  up  his  account  of  these  English 
enterprises  in  his  Title -Deeds  to  Nyassa- Land  : 
"  Dotted  here  and  there,  from  the  mangrove  swamps 
at  the  Kongone  mouth  of  the  Zambesi  to  the  farthest 
extremity  of  Lake  Nyassa,  we  pass  the  graves  of 
naval  officers,  of  brave  ladies,  of  a  missionary  bishop, 
of  clergymen,  Foreign  Office  representatives,  doctors, 
scientific  men,  engineers,  and  mechanics.  All  these 
were  our  countrymen  :  they  lie  in  glorious  graves  ; 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 


211 


their  careers  have  been  foundation-stones,  and 
already  the  edifice  rises.  British  mission  stations 
are  working  at  high  pressure  on  the  Shir^  Highlands, 
and  under  various  auspices,  not  only  upon  the  shores 
of  Lake  Nyassa,  but  on  its  islands  also,  and  by 
desperate  choice  as  it  were,  in  the  towns  of  the 
devastating  hordes  who  live  on  the  plateaux  on 
either  side  of  the  lake.  Numbers  of  native  Christians 
owe  their  knowledge  of  the  common  faith  to  these 
efforts  ;  scores  of  future  chiefs  are  being  instructed 
in  the  schools,  spread  over  hundreds  of  miles  ;  planta- 
tions are  being  mapped  out ;  commerce  is  developing 
by  sure  and  steady  steps  ;  a  vigorous  company  is 
showing  to  tribes  and  nations  that  there  are  more 
valuable  commodities  in  their  land  than  their  sons 
and  daughters."  This  is  the  vision  which  Living- 
stone saw,  when,  in  the  last  years  of  his  life,  he 
pleaded  with  his  fellow-countrymen  to  follow  him 
into  Africa.  "  I  have  opened  the  door,"  he  said,  "  I 
leave  it  to  you  to  see  that  no  one  closes  it  after  me." 

The  urgency  of  the  question  of  Portuguese  as 
against  British  supremacy  in  Equatorial  Africa  must 
not  blind  us,  however,  to  another  and  scarcely  less 
important  point — the  general  European,  and  espe- 
cially the  recent  German,  invasion  of  Africa.  The 
Germans  are  good,  though   impecunious  colonists, 


212 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 


but  it  cannot  be  said  that  they  or  any  of  the  other 
European  nations  are  as  alive  to  the  moral  responsi- 
bilities of  administration  among  native  tribes  as 
England  would  desire.  And  though  they  are  all 
freely  entitled  to  whatever  lands  in  Africa  they  may 
legitimately  secure,  it  is  advisable  for  all  concerned 
that  these  acquisitions  should  be  clearly  defined  and 
established  in  international  law,  in  order  that  the 
various  Powers,  the  various  trading-companies,  and 
the  various  missions,  may  know  exactly  where  they 
stand.  The  almost  hopeless  entanglement  of  the 
Foreign  Powers  in  Africa  at  present  may  be  seen 
from  the  following  political  "  section,"  which  re- 
presents the  order  of  occupation  along  the  Atlantic 
seaboard  from  opposite  Gibraltar  to  the  Cape : — 


POLITICAL  "SECTION"  OF  WESTERN  AFRICA 


Spain 

France 

Spain 

France 

Britain 

France 

Britain 

Portugal 

France 

Britain 

Liberia 

France 


Morocco. 


Opposite  the  Canaries. 
French  Senegambia. 


British 
French 
British 


Sierra  Leone. 
Republic  of  Liberia. 
Gold  Coast. 


Portuguese 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 


213 


England 
France 

Unappropriated 

England 

Germany  . 

French 

Portuguese . 

International 

Portuguese  . 

Portuguese 

Germany 

England 

Germany 

England 


Gold  Coast. 
Dahomey. 


Niger. 

Cameroons. 

French  Congo. 

Portuguese  Congo. 

Congo. 

Angola. 

Benguela. 

Angra  Pequena. 

Walvisch  Bay. 

Orange  River. 

Cape  of  Good  Hope. 


These  several  possessions  on  the  western  coast 
have  at  least  the  advantage  of  being  to  some  extent 
defined,  but  those  on  the  east,  and  especially  as 
regards  their  inland  limits,  are  in  a  complete  state 
of  chaos.  It  seems  hopeless  to  propose  it,  but  what 
is  really  required  is  an  International  Conference 
to  overhaul  title-deeds,  adjust  boundary  -  lines, 
delimit  territories,  mark  off  states,  protectorates, 
lands  held  by  companies,  and  spheres  of  influence. 
England's  interest  in  this  must  be  largely  a  moral 
one.  Her  ambitions  in  the  matter  of  new  territories 
are  long  ago  satisfied.  But  there  will  be  certain 
conflict  some  day  if  the  portioning  of  Africa  is  not 
more  closely  watched  than  it  is  at  present. 


214 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 


As  an  example  of  the  complacent  way  in  which 
vast  tracts  in  Africa  are  being  appropriated,  glance 
for  a  moment  at  the  recent  inroads  of  the  Germans. 
On  the  faith  of  private  treaties,  and  of  an  agree- 
ment with  Portugal,  Germany  has  recently  staked 
off  a  region  in  East  Central  Africa  stretching  from 
the  boundaries  of  the  Congo  Free  State  to  the 
Indian  Ocean,  and  embracing  an  area  considerably 
larger  than  the  German  Empire.  To  a  portion  only 
of  this  region — the  boundaries  of  which,  contrasted 
with  that  arbitrarily  claimed  in  addition,  will  be 
apparent  from  a  comparison  of  the  maps — have  the 
Germans  procured  a  title  ;  and  the  steps  by  which 
this  has  been  attained  afford  an  admirable  illustra- 
tion of  modern  methods  of  land-transfer  in  Africa. 
What  happened  was  this  : — 

Four  or  five  years  ago  Dr.  Karl  Peters  concluded 
treaties  with  the  native  chiefs  of  Useguha,  Ukami, 
Nguru  and  Usagara,  by  which  he  acquired  these 
territories  for  the  Society  for  German  Colonisation. 
The  late  Sultan  of  Zanzibar  attempted  to  remon- 
strate, but  meantime  an  imperial  "  Schutzbrief "  had 
been  secured  from  Berlin,  and  a  German  fleet  arrived 
at  Zanzibar  prepared  to  enforce  it.  Britain  appealed 
to  Germany  on  the  subject,  and  a  Delimitation 
Commission  was  appointed,  which  met  in  London. 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 


215 


An  agreement  was  come  to,  signed  by  Lord  Iddes- 
leigh  on  29th  October  1886,  and  duly  given  effect 
to.  The  terms  of  this  Anglo-German  Convention 
have  been  recently  made  public  in  a  well-informed 
article  by  Mr.  A.  Silva  White  {Scottish  Geographical 
Magazine^  March  1888),  to  which  I  am  indebted 
for  some  of  the  above  facts,  and  the  abstract  may 
be  given  here  intact,  as  political  knowledge  of  Africa 
is  not  only  deficient,  but  materials  for  improving  it 
are  all  but  inaccessible.  In  view,  moreover,  of  the 
spirit  of  acquisitiveness  which  is  abroad  among  the 
nations  of  Europe,  and  of  recent  attempts  on  the 
part  of  Germany  to  claim  more  than  her  title  allows, 
the  exact  terms  of  this  contract  ought  to  be  widely 
known  : — 

I.  Both  Powers  recognise  the  sovereignty  of  the  Sultan 
of  Zanzibar  over  the  islands  of  Zanzibar  and  Pemba,  Lamu 
and  Mafia,  as  also  over  those  small  islands  lying  within  a 
circuit  of  twelve  nautical  miles  of  Zanzibar.  Both  Powers 
also  recognise  as  the  Sultan's  possessions  on  the  mainland 
an  uninterrupted  coast-line  from  the  mouth  of  the  Miningani 
River  at  the  entrance  of  the  bay  of  Tunghi  (south  of  Cape 
Delgado)  as  far  as  Kipini  (south  of  Wito).  This  line 
encloses  a  coast  of  ten  nautical  miles  inland  for  the  whole 
distance.  The  northern  boundary  includes  Kau ;  north 
of  Kipini,  both  Powers  recognise  as  belonging  to  the  Sultan 
of  Zanzibar  the  stations  of  Kisimayu,  Brava,  Merka,  and 
Makdishu  (Magadoxo),  each  with  a  land  circuit  of  ten 


2l6 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 


nautical  miles,  and  Warsheikh  with  a  land  circuit  of  five 
nautical  miles. 

II.  Great  Britain  engages  herself  to  support  those 
negotiations  of  Germany  with  the  Sultan  which  have  for 
their  object  the  farming  out  ( Verpachtung)  of  the  customs 
in  the  harbours  of  Dar-es-Salaam  and  Pangani  to  the 
German  East  African  Association,  on  the  payment  by  the 
Association  to  the  Sultan  of  an  annual  guaranteed  sum  of 
money. 

III.  Both  Powers  agree  to  undertake  a  delimitation  of 
their  respective  spheres  of  influence  in  this  portion  of  the 
East  African  Continent.  This  territory  shall  be  considered 
as  bounded  on  the  south  by  the  Rovuma  River,  and  on 
the  north  by  a  line,  commencing  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Tana  River,  following  the  course  of  this  river  or  its  tribu- 
taries, to  the  intersection  of  the  Equator  with  the  38th 
degree  of  east  longitude,  and  from  thence  continued  in  a 
straight  line  to  the  intersection  of  the  ist  degree  of  north 
latitude  with  the  37th  degree  of  east  longitude.  The  line 
of  demarcation  shall  start  from  the  mouth  of  the  river 
Wanga,  or  Umbe,  and  follow^  a  straight  course  to  Lake 
Jipe  (south-east  of  Kilima-njaro),  along  the  eastern  shore 
and  round  the  northern  shore  of  the  lake,  across  the  river 
Lumi,  passing  between  the  territories  of  Taveta  and  Chagga, 
and  then  along  the  northern  slope  of  the  Kilima-njaro 
range,  and  continued  in  a  straight  line  to  the  point  on  the 
eastern  shore  of  Lake  Victoria  Nyanza  which  is  intersected 
by  the  ist  degree  of  south  latitude. 

Great  Britain  engages  herself  to  make  no  territorial 
acquisitions,  to  accept 'no  Protectorates,  and  not  to  com- 
pete with  the  spread  of  German  influence  to  the  south  of 
this  line,  whilst  Germany  engages  herself  to  observe  a  similar 
abstinence  in  the  territories  to  the  north  of  this  line. 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 


217 


IV.  Great  Britain  will  use  her  influence  to  promote  the 
conclusion  of  a  friendly  agreement  concerning  the  existing 
claims  of  the  Sultan  of  Zanzibar  and  the  German  East 
African  Association,  on  the  Kilima-njaro  territory. 

V.  Both  Powers  recognise  as  belonging  to  Wito  the 
coast  stretching  from  the  north  of  Kipini  to  the  north  end 
of  Manda  Bay. 

VI.  Great  Britain  and  Germany  will  conjointly  call 
upon  the  Sultan  of  Zanzibar  to  recognise  the  General  Act 
of  the  Berlin  Conference,  save  and  except  the  existing 
rights  of  His  Highness  as  laid  down  in  Art.  I.  of  the  Act. 

VII.  Germany  binds  herself  to  become  a  party  to  the 
Note  signed  by  Great  Britain  and  France  on  loth  March 
1862,  in  regard  to  the  recognition  of  the  independence 
of  Zanzibar. 

This  is  the  only^  document  which  can  have  any 
validity,  and  such  German  claims — outside  the  limit 
here  assigned — as  are  represented  on  the  newer 
German  maps,  are  to  be  treated  as  mere  charto- 
graphical  flourishes.  Encouraged,  however,  by  this 
success  in  securing  territory  in  Africa,  and  without 
stopping  to  use  or  even  to  proclaim  their  pro- 
tectorate over  more  than  a  fraction  of  the  petty 
states  comprised  within  it,  the  Germans  instantly 
despatched  expedition  after  expedition  to  secure 
further  conquests  in  the  remoter  and  unappropriated 
districts.  Dr.  Karl  Peters  himself  led  one  large 
expedition  ;  Dr.  Jiihlke  negotiated  agreements  with 


2l8 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 


the  tribes  on  the  distant  Somal  coast ;  and  other 
explorers  brought  back  rare  and  heavy  spoil — on 
paper — to  Berlin.  So  the  swallowing  up  of  Africa 
goes  on.  The  slices  cut  are  daily  becoming  bigger, 
and  in  a  few  years  more  not  a  crumb  of  the  loaf 
will  remain  for  those  who  own  it  now.  The  poor 
Sultan  of  Zanzibar,  who  used  to  boast  himself  lord 
of  the  whole  interior,  woke  up,  after  the  London 
Convention,  to  find  that  his  African  kingdom  con- 
sisted of  a  ten-mile-wide  strip  of  coast-line,  extending 
from  Kipini  to  the  Miningani  River.  Even  this  has 
already  been  sold  or  leased  to  the  English  and 
Germans,  and  nothing  now  remains  to  His  Highness 
but  a  few  small  islands. 

Since  turning  her  attention  towards  Africa, 
Germany  has  not  only  looked  well  after  new  terri- 
tory, but  seized  the  opportunity  to  inspect  and 
readjust  the  title-deeds  to  her  other  African  property. 
We  find  a  new  treaty  concluded  in  1885  between 
her  and  the  British  Protectorate  in  the  Niger  regard- 
ing the  Cameroons  ;  another  towards  the  close  of  the 
same  year  with  France  on  the  same  subject,  and 
securing  rights  to  Malimba  and  Great  Batonga ;  and 
a  third  with  Portugal  in  1887,  defining,  in  the 
interests  of  the  latter,  the  boundaries  of  Angola, 
and   ceding  to   Germany,   as    a  quid -pro -quo,  an 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 


219 


acknowledgment  of  the  claim  of  the  Germans — 
which,  of  course,  England  repudiates — to  East 
Central  Africa  from  the  coast  to  the  south  end  of 
Tanganyika  and  Lake  Nyassa,  as  far  as  the  latitude 
of  the  Rovuma. 

These  facts  prove  the  genuine  political  activity 
of  at  least  one  great  European  power,  and  offer 
a  precedent  to  England,  which,  in  one  respect  at 
least,  she  would  do  well  to  copy.  Her  title-deeds, 
and  those  of  certain  districts  in  which  she  is 
concerned,  are  not  in  such  perfect  order  as  to 
justify  the  apathy  which  exists  at  present,  and  her 
interests  in  the  country  are  now  too  serious  to  be 
the  prey  of  unchallenged  ambitions,  or  left  at  the 
mercy  of  any  casual  turn  of  the  wheel  of  politics. 

Thanks,  partly,  to  the  recent  seizure  by  Portugal 
of  the  little  Zambesi  steamer  belonging  to  the 
African  Lakes  Company — on  the  plea  that  vessels 
trading  on  Portuguese  waters  must  be  owned  by 
Portuguese  subjects,  and  fly  the  Portuguese  flag — 
and  to  influential  deputations  to  head-quarters  on 
the  part  of  the  various  Missions,  the  Foreign  Office 
is  beginning  to  be  alive  to  the  state  of  affairs  in 
East  Central  Africa.  The  annexation  of  Matabele- 
land  will  be  a  chief  item  on  the  programme  with 
which  it  is  hoped  the  Government  will  shortly  sur- 


220 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 


prise  us  ;  but,  what  is  of  greater  significance,  it  will 
probably  include  a  declaration  of  the  Zambesi  as  an 
open  river,  and  the  abolition  or  serious  restriction  of 
the  present  customs  tariff.  Important  as  these 
things  are,  however,  they  affect  but  slightly  the  two 
supreme  English  interests  in  East  Central  Africa — 
the  suppression  of  the  slave-trade  and  the  various 
missionary  and  industrial  enterprises.  The  most 
eager  among  the  supporters  of  these  higher  interests 
have  never  ventured  to  press  upon  Government  any- 
thing so  pronounced  as  that  England  should  declare 
a  Protectorate  over  the  Upper  Shire  and  Nyassa 
districts ;  but  they  do  contend,  and  with  every 
reason,  for  the  delimitation  of  part  of  this  region  as 
a  "  Sphere  of  British  Influence." 

Granting  even  that  the  shadowy  claims  of 
Germany  and  Portugal  to  the  eastern  shore  of  Lake 
Nyassa  are  to  be  respected,  there  remain  the  whole 
western  coast  of  the  Lake,  and  the  regions  of  the 
Upper  Shire  which  are  reached  directly  from  the 
waters  of  the  Zambesi,  without  trespassing  on  the 
soil  of  any  nation.  These  regions  are  not  even 
claimed  at  present  by  any  one,  while  by  every  right 
of 'discovery  and  occupation — by  every  right,  in  fact, 
except  that  of  formal  acknowledgment — they  are 
already  British.    It  will  be  an  oversight  most  culp- 


A  POLITICAL  WARNING 


221 


able  and  inexcusable  if  this  great  theatre  of  British 
missionary  and  trading  activity  should  be  allowed 
to  be  picked  up  by  any  passing  traveller,  or  become 
the  property  of  whatever  European  power  had 
sufficient  effrontery  at  this  late  day  to  wave  its  flag 
over  it.  The  thriving  settlements,  the  schools  and 
churches,  the  roads  and  trading-stations,  of  Western 
Nyassa-land  are  English.  And  yet  it  is  neither 
asked  that  they  should  be  claimed  by  England, 
annexed  by  England,  nor  protected  by  England. 
Those  whose  inspirations  and  whose  lives  have 
created  this  oasis  in  the  desert,  plead  only  that  no 
intruder  now  should  be  allowed  to  undo  their  labour 
or  idly  reap  its  fruits.  Here  is  one  spot,  at  least, 
on  the  Dark  Continent,  which  is  being  kept  pure 
and  clean.  It  is  now  within  the  power  of  the 
English  Government  to  mark  it  off  before  the  world 
as  henceforth  sacred  ground.  To-morrow,  it  may 
be  too  late. 


X 

A  METEOROLOGICAL  NOTE 


X 


A  METEOROLOGICAL  NOTE 
HE  Lake  Nyassa  region  of  Africa  knows  only 


^  two  seasons — the  rainy  and  the  dry.  The 
former  begins  with  great  regularity  on  the  opening 
days  of  December,  and  closes  towards  the  end  of 
April  ;  while  during  the  dry  season,  which  follows 
for  the  next  six  months,  the  sun  is  almost  never 
darkened  with  a  cloud.  At  Blantyre,  on  the  Shire 
Highlands,  the  rainfall  averages  fifty  inches  ;  at 
Bandawe,  on  Lake  Nyassa,  a  register  of  eighty-six 
inches  is  counted  a  somewhat  dryish  season. 

The  barometer  in  tropical  countries  is  much  more 
conservative  of  change  than  in  northern  latitudes, 
and  the  annual  variation  at  Lake  Nyassa  is  only 
about  half  an  inch — or  from  28*20  inches  in 
November  to  2870  inches  in  June.  The  diurnal 
variation,  according  to  Mr.  Stewart,  is  rarely  more 
than  twenty-hundredths  of  an  inch. 


Q 


226 


A  METEOROLOGICAL  NOTE 


The  average  temperature  for  the  year  at  Blantyre, 
where  the  elevation  is  about  three  thousand  feet 
above  sea-level,  is  50°  Fahr.,  but  the  mercury  has 
been  known  to  stand  ten  degrees  lower,  and  on  one 
exceptional  occasion  it  fell  2°  below  freezing  point. 
At  Lake  Nyassa,  half  the  height  of  Blantyre,  85° 
Fahr.  is  a  common  figure  for  mid-day  in  the  hottest 
month  (November)  of  the  year,  while  the  average 
night -temperature  of  the  coldest  month  (May)  is 
about  60°.  The  lowest  registered  temperature  on 
the  Lake  has  been  54°,  and  the  highest — though 
this  is  extremely  rare — 100°  Fahr.  When  the 
Livingstonia  Mission  occupied  the  promontory  of 
Cape  Maclear,  at  the  southern  end  of  Nyassa,  in 
1880,  one  of  the  then  staff,  Mr.  Harkess,  had  the 
energy  to  keep  a  systematic  record  of  the  temper- 
ature, and  I  am  indebted  to  his  notebook  for  the 
following  table.  The  figures  represent  observations 
taken  at  6  A.M.,  i  2  noon,  and  6  P.M.  A  dash  indi- 
cates that  the  observation  was  omitted  for  the  hour 
corresponding.  The  wet  bulb  reads  on  an  average 
10°  degrees  lower. 


A  METEOROLOGICAL  NOTE 


227 


TABLE  OF  TEMPERATURES  AT  LAKE  NYASSA. 


May. 

June. 

July. 

Aug. 

Sept. 

May. 

June. 

July. 

Aug. 

Sept. 

1 

70° 
80° 

62° 

75° 
76^ 

64° 

73° 
74° 

67° 

74° 
73° 

68° 
79° 
75° 

65° 
76° 

70° 
80° 

77° 

72° 

79° 
78° 

2 

77° 

60° 
78° 
73° 

64° 
74° 

68° 
74° 

69° 
79° 
75° 

14 

67° 

73° 
71° 

74° 

68° 
77° 
75° 

71° 
81° 
78° 

3 

w 

76° 
76° 

65° 
78° 

74° 

62° 
74° 
70° 

65° 

66° 
75°  : 
74° 

15 

68° 
76° 
75° 

64° 
74° 
72° 

76° 

66° 

72° 
75° 
77° 

4 

6^° 
79° 

_78^ 

64° 
71° 
7^ 

73° 

62° 

71°" 

77° 

79° 

16 

71° 
77° 
75° 

64° 
74° 
70° 

68° 

79° 
78° 

67° 
75° 
73° 

79° 
77° 

5 

68° 
79° 
76° 

64° 
74° 
74° 

63° 
71° 

76° 

— 

17 

68° 
78° 
77° 

64° 
74° 
72° 

65° 
77° 

76° 

76° 

6 

75r 

64° 

77° 
76° 

64° 
72^ 
74° 

70° 
77° 

65° 
81° 

77° 

18 

72° 
80° 
78° 

71° 

74° 
72° 

68° 

75° 
76° 

68° 
75° 
72° 

73° 
78° 

77° 

7 

66° 
79° 
75° 

67° 
78° 

_7j: 

64° 
71° 
71° 

61° 
79° 

72° 
80° 
77° 

19 

65° 
74° 
76° 

64° 
77° 

69° 
77° 
79° 

75° 
24° 

— 

8 

65° 
74° 
74^ 

66° 
74° 
74^ 

64° 
71° 

— 

70° 
80° 
81° 

20 

63° 
74° 
76° 

76° 
74° 

67° 
76° 
74° 

68° 
77° 

75° 
82° 
80° 

9 

77° 

68° 
76° 
73° 

65° 
75° 
73° 

62° 
79° 

81° 
77° 

21 

67° 
75° 
75° 

65° 
72° 
68° 

64° 
75° 
75° 

64° 
75° 

71° 

85° 
78° 

10 

67° 
75° 
74° 

68° 
75° 
73° 

66° 
71° 

61° 
81° 

80° 
77° 

22 

70° 
75° 

66° 
65° 

67° 
75° 
76° 

78° 
75° 

72° 
81° 
79° 

11 

69° 
75° 

66° 
76° 
75° 

76° 
73° 

62° 
79° 

70° 
79° 
79° 

23 

■58° 
67° 
70° 

65° 
77° 
74° 

79° 
77° 

70° 
82° 
78° 

12 

75° 
71° 

66° 

75° 
72° 

69° 
77° 

65° 
81° 

76° 

24 

76° 
76° 

62° 

64° 
76° 

74° 

68° 

69° 
66° 

73° 
82° 
81° 

228 


A  METEOROLOGICAL  NOTE 


Iklay. 

June. 

July. 

Aug. 

Sept. 

May. 

June. 

July. 

Aug. 

Sept. 

25 

67° 
77° 
75° 

61° 

66° 
74° 
75 

63° 

75° 
71 

74° 

70 

29 

68° 
80° 
77 

63° 
71° 

72 

65° 
72° 

75 

76° 

68° 

82° 

oO 

26 

67° 
75° 
75° 

63° 

75° 

67° 
79° 
76° 

64° 
72° 

73° 

30 

75° 
76° 

64° 

74° 

63° 
78° 
75° 

67° 

79° 
77° 

74° 
82° 
80° 

27 

69° 
77° 
74° 

72° 

65° 
74° 
71° 

65° 
77° 
77° 

73^ 
84° 
82° 

31 

67° 
74° 
74° 

65° 
76° 
76° 

66° 
79° 
83° 

28 

70° 
78° 

"° 

72° 

65° 
76° 
74° 

70° 

79° 
78° 

81° 
79° 

THE  END 


Printed  by  R.  &  R.  Clakk,  Edinbiirg/i. 


EUROPEAN*  POSSESSIONS  AND  CLAIMS  IN  CENTRAL  AND  SOUTHERN  AFRICA. 

SKETCH  MAP  SHOWING  DIVISION  ACCORDING  TO  A  iREEMENTS.  '  '         '       '  SKETCH  MAP  SHOWING   DIVISION  ACCORDING  TO  CLAIMS. 


